3/4ths Under 24 Inellgible for Armed Service; 23% Can’t Pass Entrance Exam

D.A. Ridgely

D.A. Ridgely holds degrees in philosophy and law. (He doesn't really hold them, they just hang there on the wall or peek out as initials after his name. (Actually, that isn't true, either. Those are mere symbols giving evidence of his possession of those degrees. (“Possession,” strictly speaking, being a metaphor of sorts.))) (He is overly fond of parenthetical expressions.)

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6 Responses

  1. Kolohe says:

    That the Army, in particular, can continue to maintain such standards despite its continued need for significant numbers of new accessions every year is frankly impressive.

    When the economy was going good and the war wasn’t, they didn’tReport

  2. D.A. Ridgely says:

    I know. I also recall the lengths to which the Army tried to spin the lowered standards as, well, not lower and the horselaugh this provoked from the other services, especially the Marines.Report

  3. Mike Schilling says:

    From the same cite:


    Which shows that

    1. There’s more going on here than the schools.
    2. It’s possible to land a job writing for the AP without having leaned that”graduate” does not take a direct object.Report

    • Apparently, The Atlantic will also hire such a person.

      (I think the construction is fine.)Report

      • Mike Schilling in reply to D.A. Ridgely says:

        We can make allowances for words omitted to save space in headlines. The body correctly reads “who graduated from the University of California”.

        It’s a silly point, and I brought it up at most half-seriously. Bu my kids, who’ve become pretty skilled writers by having high-school teachers who make them write constantly, take pride in getting that sort of thing right. I wish that had been installed in the failing 23%.Report

        • Sure, that’s it, they were saving headline space. That’s the ticket!

          If we’re going to get all grammatically punctilious, neither is correct. Schools graduate their students just as they previously matriculated them, so it really should read “who was graduated from [and implicitly by] the University of California.”

          I’ll stick by my original opinion. The construct “graduated college” is acceptable English even though “was graduated from” is the preferred form. (At my wife’s alma mater, by the way, the accepted phrase is “taking one’s degree,” thus avoiding the point entirely.)Report