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Subject:Re: Re. Reciprocating bosses From:Matt Ion <mion -at- DIRECT -dot- CA> Date:Wed, 24 May 1995 18:15:34 EDT
On Wed, 24 May 1995 10:38:29 LCL you wrote:
> be better to recast the phrase "... has been achieved over many years,
> due to [as a result of] the efforts of many people..."
PMBI, I just want to comment on the use of "due to" here. I had an English
teacher in Grade 10 who spent a lot of time on this particular pet peeve of
hers.
Her thinking was that the phrase "due to" was horrendously over-used in place
of "because of" or "as a result of". "Due to" means something is owing, as
in, "This payment is due to the bank".
My view on it is something of a middle stance - I DO agree that it's overused
in this manner, but I figure it's used as an abbreviated form of "credit for
this is due to".
Of course, if we use one of the old grammar-checking rules of thumb, which is
to actually use the full phrase in place of the shortened version, it sounds
really stupid: "... has been achieved over many years, credit for this is due
to the efforts...."
Just my nit-picky self... the common use of "due to" is bastardized English,
and will probably never go away (and, I admit, probably shouldn't).
> 2. Reciprocating _with_ our clients after many years of patronage:
> This one is more problematic.
Sounds kinda kinky, actually ;>
> Disclaimer: These comments are my own and don't represent the opinions
> of the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada.
Do you work in the FERIC office at UBC?
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