tersest proscription of the week (was PSAT Glitch)

[David Colburn]

>
> but wait!  i have a new entry in the terseness competition.  this
> is from X. J. Kennedy & Dorothy M. Kennedy, The Bedford Guide for
> College Writers, 2nd ed.  Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's
> Press, 1990.  on p. 639, they give the rule, and this is the whole
> thing:
>
>   Watch out for possessive nouns.  They won't work as antecedents.
>
Unfortunately, the New York Times is perpetuating this silly notion. The
following is from an "editorial observer" item in Sunday's paper:

"The teacher certainly was right on the technical question. Those who take a
dark view of where the language is headed can only stare open-mouthed in
disbelief that the College Board experts, specifically focused on composing
a grammatically correct sentence, wrote an error into it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/25/opinion/25SUN3.html