Jackson Free Press

If I were the gentlemen over on The Clarion-Ledger's editorial board, I don't think I'd be talking publicly about the problem of incompetence at the tops of organizations. Just sayin'. Here's the beginning of their editorial today on the topic; Do the edit-boyz really not see the passive-ridden irony here!?!

For a while, it appeared as if the "Peter Principle" were proving itself again with former State Health Officer Dr. Brian Amy. The principle came from the 1968 book by Dr. Laurence J. Peter. It goes that, in hierarchies, people are promoted until reaching a level of incompetence.

The reasoning goes that if a person is good at X, he or she must be good at Y - even if the qualities that make him or her excellent at X are woefully lacking, even totally disadvantageous, for Y. For example, a technical person might be great at putting objects together, but when hired to be a manager, a lack of people skills and financial acumen could prove disastrous.

There are corollaries that once a person has achieved incompetence, however, organizations, rather than admit failure, keep promoting the person based on past competence until, ultimately, a whole company - or string of them - is laid low.

Man, oh man.

Previous Comments

ID

113481

Comment

OK, I've got to pile on; I just looked back at this post, and the last sentence I quoted from that editorial stands out to me. First, check out the punctuation nightmare here: There are corollaries that once a person has achieved incompetence, however, organizations, rather than admit failure, keep promoting the person based on past competence until, ultimately, a whole company - or string of them - is laid low. OK, beyond the comma train wreck that alone makes the sentence incomprehensible, it (a) starts with "There are," which is lazy writing and sets up the backward lump of words that follows; (b) mentions "corollaries" and then only names one corollary (if that's what it is; the point is unclear); (c) talks about "a whole company" or "string of them"; what is "them"? Companies? Incompetent employees?) and (d) ends with a passive that doesn't make sense to boot (not to mention follows the plural "them" with a singular "is"). Of course, the overall meaning of this sentence is lost. Are they saying that a person shouldn't be promoted on "past competence"? And how do you "achieve" incompetence, anyway? And it sounds like the organizations won't admit their own failure rather than that of the employees. And how do multiple companies keeping promoting that one person? Finally, what in the hell do they mean by the passive "is laid low." This mess of words gives me a nightmare. If someone turned this into me, I would return it and tell them to make it make sense before I even attempted to edit it. I really don't understand why anyone allows this level of writing into print. But they do it every single day. It is an insult to their readers. And the sentences above and below it are just as bad. It's not like they just screwed up one sentence. Talk about Peter Principle. It's hard to imagine a better example. Thanks, Ledge.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-17T12:34:14-06:00

ID

113482

Comment

LOL! I love the Peter Principle! Man, oh man indeed!

Author

pikersam

Date

2007-07-17T14:36:58-06:00

ID

113483

Comment

I know. This editorial is satire. Even if they don't know it. It doesn't get any funnier than this.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-17T14:38:58-06:00

ID

113484

Comment

I got a headache just reading the explanation. I thought a corollary had something to do with the heart.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2007-07-17T15:02:27-06:00

ID

113485

Comment

You're right. I don't even see how the word "corollary" even means what they are trying to say that it means. I mean look at this part of that sentence alone—and try to substitute a synonym for "corollary." It doesn't work. (Of course, with the whacked, backward, passive sentence structures, no words will work.) There are corollaries that once a person has achieved incompetence, It is hard to write worse than this. I've often theorized that each of the edit-boyz chooses a word out of a hat and then throws it toward the screen and, voila!, the next day's editorial. It's really the most logical explanation. No one could possibly write like this on purpose. Or, maybe they use those little refrigerator poetry magnets.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-17T15:15:25-06:00

ID

113486

Comment

I'm no grammarian, but should the first "were" be "were" or "was?" HDM

Author

HDMatthias, MD

Date

2007-07-19T08:36:03-06:00

ID

113487

Comment

It should be "was", Doc.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-07-19T09:00:03-06:00

ID

113488

Comment

I'd need to be plural to be the "gentlemen," eh? ;-)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-19T09:13:22-06:00

ID

113489

Comment

(Oh, and research "if I were to be" usage.)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-19T09:16:43-06:00

ID

113490

Comment

Yeah, I saw that. :-)

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-07-19T09:16:57-06:00

ID

113491

Comment

The "gentlemen" thing, I mean.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-07-19T09:21:26-06:00

ID

113492

Comment

(Oh, and research "if I were to be" usage.) To be or not to be? I'd say not, unless you're writing a poem or something. Found this: Subjunctive BTW, I heard about this Web site on Oprah: Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-07-19T09:28:12-06:00

ID

113493

Comment

Right, L.W. These used to confuse me, too. And don't worry, Doc, I don't know how to take out an appendix, so we're even.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-19T09:30:49-06:00

ID

113494

Comment

Grammar Girl is cool. Maybe I'll recommend her in my writing classes. Re serial commas, the JFP does not use them. We follow AP style pretty much religiously. The basic premise behind AP style is that the shorter the better, so we don't use things that aren't needed -- like writing out numbers with more than one digit, or adding unneeded serial commas. We don't italicize publication names.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-19T09:33:39-06:00

ID

113495

Comment

I gotta refresh my memory on AP. I've written papers in MLA and APA style, and I've always just followed general grammar rules I learned as a kid.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-07-19T09:36:43-06:00

ID

113496

Comment

This is a call-out of specific AP rules to watch. Another big difference from other styles is how we do possessives.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-19T09:41:40-06:00

ID

113497

Comment

Donna, I'll print that out and read it in waiting rooms and traffic jams and stuff. :-P I saw affect vs. effect on the list. I remember fixing that for one of the new columns last night - or was it this morning? I went to bed kind of late. :-)

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-07-19T09:45:22-06:00

ID

113498

Comment

Back to the Ledge. Here are a couple of edit-boyz' "sentences" o' the day: Attorney General Jim Hood and Secretary of State Eric Clark were right to request a delayed date since it would be impossible to re-register 1.7 million voters on short notice and Pepper complied and further outlined his reasoning, extending the date to include presidential primaries next March. ("since" only used for time -- "since last March" -- not instead of because) In this, his logic is impeccable, ruling Wednesday: "It was the court's intent to rule that in order to ensure the Democratic Party's First Amendment right to disassociate from nonmembers, the Legislature would have to, at minimum, require party registration and voter identification, since any other option would be inadequate to ensure the plaintiffs' right to disassociate." (I guess "logic" issued a ruling Wednesday, not the judge.) It's imperative the simplest, best system, that is easiest on voters be implemented as a first order of business when Mississippi lawmakers convene. Bad punctuation—second comma is incorrect and changes meaning of the "sentence." Sentence, inevitably, is passive and backward for no apparent reason. The sentence should read: "As the first order of business when they convene, Mississippi lawmakers should implement the simplest, best system that is easiest on voters." Or something akin to that — meaning active. I just don't understand why they write, and edit, so poorly. This is not good for the literacy of Mississippians. And I really do not think schools should distribute such a poorly written newspaper to students.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-19T09:53:04-06:00

ID

113499

Comment

Which column; that's a pet peeve of mine, so I'm surprised it got through, but it happens. Basically, the only time that "effect" should be used as a verb is an "effect change" situation. Otherwise, it's a noun.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-19T09:57:00-06:00

ID

113500

Comment

L.W., was it in Ronni's piece -- "affect change" is in there incorrectly. I'm going to change it back. Remember, "effect change" is the verb exception on affect/effect. ;-)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-19T09:59:22-06:00

ID

113501

Comment

Oh, okay. I didn't know that one. School me, then! LOL

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-07-19T10:05:47-06:00

ID

113502

Comment

That's OK. It's like having a public editing class. (I used to teach editing at a university, BTW. It's hard to teach editing; most people get the basics, or they don't. See: edit-boyz.)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-07-19T10:38:28-06:00

ID

113503

Comment

The basic premise behind AP style is that the shorter the better, so we don't use things that aren't needed -- like writing out numbers with more than one digit, or adding unneeded serial commas. Sometimes, I wish you were my English teacher in high school and college.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2007-07-19T12:10:05-06:00

ID

113504

Comment

By the way, here's the definition for "corollary", from m-w.com: a proposition inferred immediately from a proved proposition with little or no additional proof 2 a : something that naturally follows : RESULT b : something that incidentally or naturally accompanies or parallels - corollary adjective

Author

golden eagle

Date

2007-07-19T12:20:04-06:00

ID

113505

Comment

I've heard the word "corollary" thrown around in higher math. Thanks for the flashbacks. Yuck.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-07-19T20:39:13-06:00