From: darius@naqvi.uucp (Darius S. Naqvi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Distribution: world
Subject: Re: Abu-Musa and "THE GULF: Britain's days of empire"
Organization: The Naqvi Residence, Morinville, Alberta, Canada
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 10:27:00 -0600

The learned Mr. Babak Sehari has a lot of nerve criticizing someone
else's use of English grammar and punctuation, when it is more than
obvious that he himself has no knowledge of either.  His "analysis" is
similar to that of many others who are ignorant of the correct use of
English.  That is, he looks at a well-written article which uses
English at a level above that of his own comprehension, and then finds
"errors" that are in fact correct usages of clauses and punctuation
that conflict with the errors that he makes in the mistaken belief that
his own usage is correct!  

It is no crime to have poor English, but it is certainly foolish to
pretend to know something that you do not.

Let me analyze some of the errors the learned Mr. Sehari makes:

babak@cpre1.ee.iastate.edu (Babak Sehari) writes:

[stuff deleted]

> No credible news service would hire a reporter, whose job is to write, 
> that does not know how to write.  This is my believe that this news was 
                                               ^^^^^^^

Is it your "believe" or your belief?  It could not possibly be your
"believe", since "believe" is a verb, not a noun.

> planted to steer the controversy over the Iranian Island of Abu-mosa.  Not
             ^^^^^

How does one "steer" a controversy?  Does a controversy come complete
with a steering wheel or rudder?  How extraordinarily convenient!
Perhaps you meant to say "stir" instead of "steer."

> even once, in this "news report" Persian gulf is been mentioned by it's
                                                                     ^^^^
This should be "its." The possessive of "it" does not take an
apostrophe; "it's" is always taken to be the contraction for "it is." I
recall being taught this in grade seven.  Thus, an error of this sort
is either an indication that the writer didn't listen to his grade
seven teacher, or the writer did not study English grammar in school
because the writer's native language is not English.

Also, "is been mentioned" should be "has been mentioned."  As well, your
word order is incorrect; it really should be "has the Persian Gulf been
mentioned."  You also forgot the article "the."  These errors are typical
of Persian or Arabic writers who are not completely familiar with the
proper use of English grammar or punctuation.

> complete name, always as you could see it has been called "the gulf".  This 
> is the way most Arabic news media usually call the Persian gulf.  
> 
> Any "news reports" is somewhat biased, but this one is just out right 
                                                              ^^^^^^^^^

You should say "outright," not "out right."

> propaganda.  As you can see, it has been called "Analysis".  Newswires do 
> not "analysis", they just report the news. Analysis is what you get from 
       ^^^^^^^^

No, newswires certainly do not "analysis," since that is a grammatical
impossiblity.  It might be correct to say, "Newswires do not analyze."
At least, this latter statement is within the realm of possibility,
since "analyze" is a verb while "analysis" is a noun.

> a newspaper or magazines, with known political ideology.  
> 
> Anyway, this is my opinion.  I just wanted to share it with others.  One 
> might have another opinion about this, that fine too.  
                                         ^^^^^^^^^

"That fine too" sounds like a Tarzan movie, for example, when Tarzan
says, "Me Tarzan, you Jane." I believe you meant to say, "That's fine
too." This is another error typical of a writer whose native language
is not English.

I realize that I am giving the impression that I am extremely picky
with English grammar.  It was not my intention to give this impression.
Rather, my intention was to point out that Mr. Sehari's criticism of a
certain news article is entirely without merit.  The news article he
chose to criticize uses English grammar, spelling and punctuation
correctly.  In fact, Mr. Sehari would do very well to emulate the use
of grammar, spelling and punctuation in that article; he would also do
very well to use said article as an example of good writing style.

Of course, he may or may not be correct in saying that the article is
inaccurate.  This, however, is completely independent of its use of
grammar, punctuation and style.

Darius S. Naqvi                    email: darius%naqvi.uucp@isac.ca

"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
                             -- Baha'u'llah
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian