Retired English teacher corrects letter from Trump and sends it back to White House

The Hill ^ | 05/26/18 | Josh Delk

[yesthatjallen]

A retired high school English teacher says a letter she received from President Trump would have barely earned passing marks, so she corrected the letter and sent it back to the White House.

Yvonne Mason, an Atlanta resident who retired this year after teaching middle and high school students in South Carolina for 17 years, corrected grammatical mistakes in the letter bearing Trump's signature, including 11 instances of improper capitalization of words like "president" and "state."

"If it had been written in middle school, I'd give it a C or C-plus," Mason told South Carolina's Greenville News. "If it had been written in high school, I'd give it a D."

She did not attach a letter grade in the letter she sent back to the White House.

Mason acknowledges the letter was likely written by a staffer. She received it after penning a letter requesting that Trump meet individually with the families who lost loved ones in the Feb. 14 high school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

"When you get letters from the highest level of government, you expect them to be at least mechanically correct," she told the newspaper.

"It's stylistically appalling," she added, comparing Trump's writing to the "exquisite" letters she's received from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R) office.

The teacher said the White House response did not address her request specifically.

[damper99]

If you don’t have the particular style guide to reference, you are shooting in the dark with your comments about “errors”.

[JohnBrowdie]

it wasn’t a well written letter, above and beyond your capitalization fetish.

but if you want to hang your hat on Nation/nation, then go with God.

[trebb]

Sometimes capitalization helps show one is talking about a specific (proper noun) - too many English teachers are too stupid to teach - I had a college Professor who took points off because she said I spelled "grateful" wrong - she insisted it should be "greatful"....

I told her the root was "gratitude" and showed her 3 dictionaries that had my version but not her's and she still insisted she was right....this woman had a valuable keepsake and was too stupid to recognize it....sweet!

[joma89]

Gee, think this teacher would have done the same if the letter was signed by a demo_ratic president?

JoMa

[piroque]

Had the same thoughts , when they’re loosing an argument they go after you’re spell’n (/S)

[QBFimi]

Thanks for the post of the “corrected” letter. Comments:

1/ Yvonne Mason holds a BA in English from a non-accredited school - St. Andrew’s Presbyterian [ex Community] College in NC. 41% of all who apply are accepted. (”We gwine ta’ Collie!”)

2/ Her “corrections” to the President’s lecture focus on two areas: The excessive use of upper case letters, and the use of “I”. For all her criticism, she sure uses a lot of it on Facebook.

3/ Her post of 2/28 includes a single sentence which begins with a rather awkward word order and ends in a preposition.

4/ Her post of 3/15/17 is an image of Caesar being stabbed to death.

---

I could go on. Instead, here’s a quote:

Everywhere I go, I’m asked if the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. Mary Flannery O’Connor

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Ask her to diagram a sentence.