Word: grammar
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...preface to his Complete Poems Sandburg says: ". . . I went to West Point . . . for two weeks-returning home after passing in spelling, geography, history, failing in arithmetic and grammar . . ." The Register does not list candidates who flunk their entrance exams...
Carl Sandburg did pretty well at West Point-for a poet. He lasted two weeks.* He failed in arithmetic and grammar and now, 50 years later, in the preface to his fat Complete Poems he admits that he is "still studying verbs and the mystery of how they connect nouns," and adds, "I am more suspicious of adjectives than at any other time in all my born days." On the subject of poetic form, form-scorning Poet Sandburg is a more primitive, less useful guide. Example...
Dean Gordon Johnston of the University of Denver College of Law had heard too many lawyers make the same complaint : the law school graduates who came to them for jobs did not seem to know either spelling or grammar. Dean Johnston decided that Denver graduates would be different, this year gave incoming students a special test. Last week he announced the results: half the class, including one Phi Beta Kappa, had flunked. Samples of examination answers...
...aides disapprovingly. He left no corner unexplored. In a grey business suit with thin, greying hair plastered across his bald spot, he strode into school gymnasiums, eyed his audiences impersonally through spectacles, and gave fidgety small fry The Speech complete with facts & figures. He told them with punctilious grammar: "No one can tell your parents for whom they shall vote. It matters most that they vote for whom they please. But urge them to vote...
...next book on the pile was thin and green, with an H. carefully blacked in with pencil on the front. French Grammar for the College Student. He flipped open the cover; somebody had written "Ou est le W. C.?" inside. Pretty good course, that had been. Neat guys--real jokers. That was the kind of thing you probably remembered about College. He weighed the book in his hand; it was small and handy, printed on exceptionally light paper. It wouldn't really take up too much space. Vag held the book a minute more, and then let it slip back...