Safire also rated them on alliteration. They were also judged on grammar and pronunciation. If you're a regular reader of the New York Times, perhaps you've seen these essays. These are fastidious readers with real or imagined expertise in matters of correct grammar and knowledge of the esoteric. After the column on how prepositions are being left off willy-nilly, a shower of letters debated whether those words were prepositions, particles, adverbs, separated suffixes or verbal adjuncts.
Some answers are as funny as the columns.
Overzealous editing, alas, is as much a sin of the age as is bad writing. And, we hope, going . . . Diane Hartman, former educator and journalist, is director of communications for the Denver and Colorado bar associations. Reviews will appear on The Denver Post Online.