jordan graduates from woodridge tomorrow. and* i suppose woodridge graduates jordan tomorrow and jordan will be graduated from woodridge by tomorrow as well. whew. in any case i won't be able make it to the ceremony. godwilling i'll be up in austin at the cs3 conference tomorrow; i'm really, really hoping they'll have the adobe cs3 moleskines there, but it's a pipe dream.
*USAGE NOTE [VIA] The verb graduate has denoted the action of conferring an academic degree or diploma since at least 1421. Accordingly, the action of receiving a degree should be expressed in the passive, as in She was graduated from Yale in 1998. This use is still current, if old-fashioned, and is acceptable to 78 percent of the Usage Panel. In general usage, however, it has largely yielded to the much more recent active pattern (first attested in 1807): She graduated from Yale in 1998. Eighty-nine percent of the Panel accepts this use. It has the advantage of ascribing the accomplishment to the student, rather than to the institution, which is usually appropriate in discussions of individual students. When the institution's responsibility is emphasized, however, the older pattern may still be recommended. A sentence such as The university graduated more computer science majors in 1997 than in the entire previous decade stresses the university's accomplishment, say, of its computer science program. On the other hand, the sentence More computer science majors graduated in 1997 than in the entire previous decade implies that the class of 1997 was in some way a remarkable group. • The Usage Panel feels quite differently about the use of graduate to mean “to receive a degree from,” as in She graduated Yale in 1998. Seventy-seven percent object to this usage.
This wordsmith did not know about that about graduate. I'm still on a crusade to teach the world about myriad (not myriad of) other common English usage mistakes. Biggest pet peeve of late: Everyone thinks it's OK to use "here's" and there's" in the plural sense. Eg: There's two more flautas left.
Posted by: Chelsea | Wednesday, May 23, 2007 at 01:36 PM
Correction: One too many abouts in that first sentence.
Posted by: Chelsea | Wednesday, May 23, 2007 at 01:37 PM
envio mis felicidades a jordan!
Posted by: ´mela | Friday, May 25, 2007 at 05:15 PM