I just got a phone call from a soldier who bet another soldier $20 that there was a grammar error in the NCO Creed. They called me to be the judge. And they're not even my students; they're soldiers in other classes who know I work here.
Have I mentioned how much I love my job?
Posted by Sarah at April 16, 2004 01:54 PMWell, is there?
Posted by: Jason at April 16, 2004 04:38 PMNope.
Posted by: Sarah at April 16, 2004 10:13 PMAnother mystery solved by the Grammar Goddess!
Um...what was the specific source of the bet--which part of the Creed?
Posted by: david at April 17, 2004 11:23 AMActually, it was a really weird question. She had taken an English class and had been told (as many uptight English teachers will say) that you can't use the word so in a formal paper (e.g. you shouldn't say "So I blah blah"), and then took that advice way too far. She thought you shouldn't use the word so at all, and took issue with the part that says conduct myself so as to bring credit upon the Corps. I told her that so is part of the expression so as to and was perfectly fine there. She then said that if she translated it into her native language (Spanish) it wouldn't work, and therefore she thought it was an error. I cautioned her against translating to decide if there's an English error and pointed out that although the creed is written in stick-up-butt English, it is in fact grammatically correct. She lost $20 on that one.
Posted by: Sarah at April 17, 2004 09:07 PM