Iran, North Korea, Syria and ... commas. While Mike Pompeo is focused on a number of key geopolitical concerns, an email obtained by CNN suggests that the secretary of state also appears to have had it, up to, here, with, the rampant, improper use of commas by State Department staff.In the last few months, two emails have gone out from Pompeo's top staff to employees throughout the State Department giving careful, meticulous instructions on comma usage.
The latest email, sent in early September and obtained by CNN, gives "updated guidance ... regarding correct use of commas in paper for Department principals."
"The Secretary has underscored the need for appropriate use of commas in his paper (both their inclusion and omission)," the email declares. It also notes that Pompeo prefers adherence to the Chicago Manual of Style, which states "effective use of the comma involves good judgment, with the goal being ease of reading."
The email includes a long string of examples, including many from the Chicago Manual of Style, outlining when a comma should be added and when it should be excluded, and providing detailed explanations for both -- along with color-coded highlighting.
"The administration is committed to achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace agreement, and remains optimistic that progress can be made," one example reads, with the comma after agreement highlighted in bright yellow -- meaning it is wrong. "No comma when single subject with compound predicate," the email instructs.
According to one senior State Department official, Pompeo is a stickler for correct punctuation, which prompted his staff to send out the guidance emails. The State Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Another senior State Department official noted that past secretaries of state had their own grammar tics -- Colin Powell "famously focused on font and font size" and Condoleezza Rice was picky about margins and people "cramming too much into the regulated lengths for memo types."
"During employee evaluation season there is an annual debate about the use of the Oxford comma," the official says, and "Oxford comma advocates" -- meaning a comma before the last item in a series -- "usually win."
The secretary's desire for strict style guide adherence contrasts with President Donald Trump's tendency on Twitter to forego standard guidelines on punctuation and capitalization. A retired teacher who received a letter from the President even sent it back with corrections because she said it was filled with grammar and style mistakes.
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The article posted above makes me realize how commas and punctuations are very important especially in formal occasions. It can be fatal for not using the right punctuations when serious communications is needed. The recipients may not understand, or moreover, they may interpret the message by mistake. Indonesians are another example of people that does not take punctuations and commas seriously. Even the language of Bahasa Indonesia itself is often being underestimate by its users. What I meant by the word ‘underestimate’ in the previous statement was that Indonesians has successfully developed and ‘easier’ language for their daily communication. It is still a language of Bahasa Indonesia, of course, but it has leave the right grammar use far behind. Even some words are changed regardless the right affix. For example, ‘cuci’ is a word for wash. When we want to say ‘washing’, the right word in Bahasa for it is ‘mencuci’. But the word ‘nyuci’ is more commonly used among Indonesians. In conclusion, The tragic thing of having more and more slang words used in daily communications is that Bahasa Indonesia is losing its point and importance.
ReplyDeleteCan’t imagine how It feels to be the the Secretary. This shows how important punctuations really are. The problem with poor punctuation is that it make life difficult for the reader who needs to read what you have written. This can affect the meaning of the message you originally wanted to tell. It’s very important, and a tiny, misplaced comma or question mark can cost millions of dollars or break someone’s heart. Especially with a position as powerful as the Secretary of the United States. I’m sure he doesn’t want his information to be misinterpreted. But can his subordinates really help it? Truth is, the probably can’t. so Mr. Secretary need to step up his punctuation games so that he doesn’t gvbe out informations that could potentially mislead others into a set of unnecessary problem. Plus, giving his co-workers an easier job is a god deed in itself. Good luck sir.
ReplyDeleteThis article is a good example of people that doesn’t use comma and grammar correctly. This is a big problem since this mistakes made by people who have big power that can control the fate of many people. This maybe looks trivial but there will be a big danger when these people make a policy and they un intently use wrong comma and grammar that will make a different meaning. Government official should really pay attention to any grammar and punctuation to reduce any misunderstanding about the meaning in the paper. We should make any big government official to at least check their writing to their secretary and save the face of the government in the same time. Can you imagine a president letter being sent back with correction to its grammar and punctuation, it will be a national embarrassment and show that we as a nation still lack of attention to our grammar.
ReplyDeleteThe article above proved that grammar and punctuation are important. Beside a wide range of knowledge and an excellent content, we also need to focus on the structure and also the style of writing. Some people do not take these components into a consideration on writing. One of the cases was done by the Secretary of The United State, Mike Pompeo where he attached an email that have wrong punctuations especially in term of the use of comma. In addition, the email also filled with some grammar and style mistakes. This occurrence emphasized that it is crucial to be meticulous enough on writing. In my personal experience, I had used a wrong punctuation and capitalization in my essays which deducted some percentage from my score. Grammar has always become my biggest weakness, most of my papers are criticized by the teacher in term of grammar. In conclusion, despite the importance of the content, we also have to use proper grammar and punctuation on writing.
ReplyDeleteI would criticise and question the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo regarding his consistency. I agree if punctuations, the quality of grammar, and such are essential as politic-related papers are substantial in clarity. Then, my question is; what happens to the vague wording of the United States and North Korean’s summit in 2018?
ReplyDeleteMy argument would be if Mike Pompeo is a perfectionist in wording a paper, hence using Chicago Manual Style as the benchmark, then why the agreement of the summit is implicit and lack of clarity? The summit in 2018 was a major summit between two highly sought nations conducted by prominent politicians, including Mike Pompeo as the Secretary of State in which he is involved in many meetings, by logic; he contributed to the wording of the agreement on the summit.
If the United States is genuinely trying to implement a hegemonic government, then complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement should be conducted to write an explicit agreement.