Press Release Error
I’m sorry I’ve not blogged for a few days. Instructional Solutions celebrates its ten year anniversary this month! There is a lot of reflection and writing and celebrating occurring.
Coincidentally, I stumbled across a press release for a potential client, also celebrating a ten year anniversary this year. They’re a great company, but I cringed. The first paragraph of their press release had both awkward phrasing and a grammar error. (All name and identities are changed):
July, 2008 Portland, OR – Company Name, Inc., a Portland management and IT consulting firm, celebrates its tenth year in business this month. Started in July, 1998, John Jones began the business in his Portland home with he and his wife, Karen, as the only employees of the company.
Reading this, you can feel the strained, awkward phrasing. It’s also incorrect. The error occurs with the phrase, “…in his Portland home with he and his wife.”
“with he” should be omitted, since it’s not needed for clarity. The sentence already indicates he started the business. So, better clarity would read:
“…in his Portland home with his wife, Karen.
Grammatically, it’s incorrect because an object pronoun should be used, not a subject pronoun:
“…in his Portland home with (him and) her.”
Check out the Purdue University Online Writing Lab for more information about subject and object pronouns.
Ten years in business is a big milestone. Proof the press release carefully.
