Senior official provides relief food to family WHO HAS been hit by illness
We got interested in this one we saw on the wall of a major school in Murang’a County, Kenya. We’re certain the artist who did the job was assigned by the relevant authorities to paint PROFESSIONAL ( not PROFFESSIONAL) and ATHLETES (not ATHLETS). Trust signwriters! PHOTO | AMS
The teacher in me says I should continue to fuss, over and over again, about our people’s disregard for punctuation. Some years in the past, we wrote in this space a headline that read: Do they teach punctuation anymore in our learning institutions?
This question still lingers in this columnist’s mind today. It is quite disturbing to read a text exceeding 100 words and comprising up to three complete sentences, yet it doesn’t bear anything such as a comma, a semi-colon, a question mark or a full stop to guide the reader.
Most of you who are reading this, we aver, are familiar with this incredulity. And among the culprits are people who are diploma holders, graduates and even post-graduates. There are even teachers and career scribblers who display this form of illiteracy too, and one will be forgiven to ask: what could be wrong with our schooled people? There must be something faulty about language teaching in “Bongo” and elsewhere in East Africa.
That is why we feel obliged to propose that punctuation should be taught at all levels, from primary school to university. Which is to say, the Communication Skills (CL) course, which has historically been offered to First Year learners only in our institutions of higher learning, should be included in every stage of every learner’s educational journey.
Having thus lectured (bah!), let us now proceed with sharing linguistic gems we picked up over the week. Here we go…
On Page 8 of the huge and colourful broadsheet of July 24, there are two opinion articles, one of which is on assessment of public institutions’ performances. Says the author: “Most assessments are conducted annually, and even then, certain FACELIFT TAKE more than a year to be completed.”
Facelift take? Nope. We aver the scribbler set out to say, “Certain FACELIFTS take…” In the paragraph that follows, the scribbler writes: “Nor are things made more complicated when top officials say the public sector executives carry a crucial responsibility in translating Vision 2050—and THEREFORE HENCE the need for visionary leadership…”
What is “therefore hence”? The two conjunctive adverbs mean exactly the same thing—they are synonyms—so lumping them together as a single expression renders them nonsensical!
Another opinion piece on the same page has a headline written thus: ‘Inviting PCCB is well-intentioned, but not a panacea ON project funds.” This beautiful word, “panacea,” is a noun which means “a remedy for all ills or difficulties.” In general terms, it refers to an idealistic, single solution for every problem. The word should be followed by the preposition “FOR” not “on.” Yes; inviting PCCB to curb mismanagement of public funds is a great idea, but that won’t be a panacea FOR ending thievery by unscrupulous honchos!
We go back to Page 6 and find this story, ‘Temeke police extend direct support to struggling family…’ In Para 2 of the story, the scribbler reports: “During his community visit, SACP Malulu provided the family— WHO HAS been heavily affected by long-term illness—with food items…”
The family—who has? Oh, no! We aver our scribbling colleague meant to say: “…the family—THAT has been heavily affected…”
And finally, we take a look at the July 25 edition of Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet, whose Page 2 has a story entitled: ‘Government rallies Tanzanians for Kigali trade fair.’ The intro for this one is thus penned: The GOVERNMENT has urged Tanzanians to seize opportunities presented by the upcoming EAC micro, small and medium enterprises trade fair, WITH THE GOVERNMENT saying the event will help businesses access regional markets…”
The three-word expression that we have capitalised (with the government) are of no use in the sentence, other than introducing monotony. It should be deleted!
