<p>My D got a postcard today from Northwestern about Alumni Interviews.</p>
<p>It had a fundamental grammar error. Somehow this lowers my opinion of Northwestern. Should it?
(here's the error: "Interviews are not required, however they can provide insight." Two complete sentences joined by a comma. grrrrrr)</p>
<p>Alumni and administrative staff are just ordinary people, however they make basic grammar and spelling mistakes too. ;)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t judge the college or alumni based on the grammatical skills of one admin person (I’m sure you wouldn’t anyway).</p>
<p>Look at ANY school website closely enough and you will find far worse abuses of the English language. If you are going to lower your opinion of Northwestern based on that postcard, you will have to lower your opinion of a lot of other schools.</p>
<p>The folks who sent the card probably didn’t go to Northwestern.</p>
<p>I would feel free to use it if you wish to discourage your child from applying to Northwestern. :D</p>
<p>I found a really sloppy website for a college that people on here seem to think highly of. What really bothered me is that the bad pages were in the section called “Diversity at College X.” Well, it made the college’s efforts at diversity seem hollow at best if it couldn’t give these pages the same attention it gave to the rest of the website. TOTALLY turned me off, petty or not.</p>
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<p>Mini, you’re probably right!!</p>
<p>Actually, there is a larger grammatical error. “Interviews” do not provide insight. People provide insight. People gain insight. Information gleaned can result in insight.</p>
<p>It’s the mistake of one or two people, how can you hold it against an institution?</p>
<p>"
It had a fundamental grammar error. Somehow this lowers my opinion of Northwestern. Should it?"</p>
<p>Only if you think that prestigious colleges and their alum/employees should always be 100% perfect. </p>
<p>If so, I shudder to think about how the many careless grammatical and spelling errors I’ve made in my CC posts reflect on Harvard.</p>
<p>So true, NSMom! </p>
<p>Liz7- You may, on April 1st, quickly forgive Northwestern for the grammar faux pas if they send the only fat envelope/yes in the mail/email box. :)</p>
<p>Isn’t there something called transference??..a daughter’s accomplishments are under intense scrutiny so mama bear deflects the criticism to the colleges? 
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<p>The powerlessness of parents manifests itself in strange ways during this process. Grammar policing is probably one of the safest!</p>
<p>I grant and even agree with all your generous and kind points. Nevertheless, my university students know this is a major no-no. I don’t care about “grammar” as some kind of holy grail. It is, however, the kind of social code that a place like Northwestern prides itself on (see! I ended a sentence with a preposition! I’m sort of cool, at least.). One of our kids already went there, and I would not be unhappy to see this D go there too (not thrilled, but not unhappy). Still, Admissions is the face of the University, and I am surprised and a little disconcerted.</p>
<p>I’m with you, liz7. Grammatical errors drive me nuts. And a grammatical error in an official printed mailing from a university is poles apart from an error in a post on CC! </p>
<p>I don’t think it would affect my admissions decision if I were an applicant, but I do agree that the mistake reflects poorly on the institution.</p>
<p>I teach English at the college level. Our worst nightmares involve writing memos to each other and having them red-pencil edited by our colleagues.</p>
<p>Everyone makes mistakes.</p>
<p>I have trained myself to hold meaning above grammar; having something to say is far more vital than rules we follow if we say nothing.</p>
<p>I like mini’s point about about the usage “interviews provide insight” because it dulls the expressive value of the expression, whereas the comma splice does not.</p>
<p>My husband is a grammar policeman, but he makes far more mistakes than I do.</p>
<p>In addition, I have close friends who are linguists, and they insist rules should follow usage. They mock the obsessions of us English teachers. In their view, comma splices will soon become acceptable. In fact, they find them acceptable now.</p>
<p>In that spirit I no longer correct “their” when referring to a singular subject as in, “The student tied their shoe.” This “incorrect” usage allows us to avoid the sexism of standard English usage or the clumsiness of his/her.</p>
<p>The student can tie my shoe anytime s/he likes, (provided I’m not wearing him/her. ;)).</p>
<p>ouch. </p>
<p>I teach at the university level too. And I have great sympathy for the linguists’ position.</p>
<p>But I would never want to expose my first-generation college students to the humiliation of being “wrong.” I’m fine with the living language, the evolution of usage. But it does creep me out that a mailing from a very exclusive university would make a mistake like this. We expect our undergrads to proof read.</p>
<p>OP,
This country comprises of many immigrants for whom English is a second language. I studied in a completely different indigenous language (Marathi) from KG through 10th Grade in India. Amongst 3 mandatory languages taught in Indian schools then were English, Hindi and Sanskrit. However, my College education was completely in English.</p>
<p>Learning English in a vernacular school is never the same as learning English in an English school. I think the fundamentals of grammar are probably taught differently.</p>
<p>Although I have achieved grad education in Pharmacy here in the US and have published my research papers in top Scientific journals of Diabetes, Neurology, Pharmacology, and Transplantation, I am sure I make errors like the one you point out.</p>
<p>If I were you, I wouldn’t judge a person or an entire Institution by a comma!</p>
<p>Well, I’m a Northwestern grad and frankly I think it reflects poorly on the university.</p>
<p>I have notified businesses and other institutions about typos I’ve found on their websites, advertisements, and signage. I wouldn’t have a problem if you brought it to the attention of someone in the admissions office, personally. I would. Well, anonymously if my kids were applying :-)</p>
<p>Pharmagal,</p>
<p>What you say is true. However, as a native speaker of English, I can tell you that only a small minority of native speakers would recognize the particular error in grammar cited by the OP. The same error is made on a daily basis by native speakers who hold graduate degrees in a wide range of fields. As mythmom points out, another group of academics would argue that the English language has already evolved to the point at which the sentence in question should no longer be considered in error. Traditionalists may disagree, but I think they are going to lose this argument in the long run. It is another example of a rule up with which we will not put.</p>
<p>I tell my university students they can write anything any way–as long as they now what they are doing and what codes they are playing with. </p>
<p>maybe Northwestern did this deliberately to make applicants feel comfortable. But I think I will follow pizzagirl’s advice. I’ll tell them. Errors like this are like wearing fanny packs in Paris–comfortable, perhaps, but embarrassing.</p>