Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Newspapers have problems, including the Houston Chronicle

The Houston Chronicle reports today on a controvery regarding sex education in Texas public school textbooks. But let's talk about grammar. Here's a bad instruction. I'm pretty sure it comes from a textbook (but see below):
Analyze the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of barrier protection and other contraceptive methods including the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, keeping in mind the effectiveness of remaining abstinent until marriage.
The following is a reason why the quoted instruction is a bad one: Including the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases refers to the implied analysis; said prevention is not a contraceptive method, as the sentence suggests. I think that's a reason that counts against the book; good grammar, and more particularly *clear wording* is important, even in a science text. Of course, it's also important in a newspaper report. Here's the quotation in the context of the Chronicle story, with my emphasis added:
The books, which will replace 11-year-old texts, were found by panels of educators and citizens to meet state curriculum standards, including one which requires students to "analyze the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of barrier protection and other contraceptive methods including the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, keeping in mind the effectiveness of remaining abstinent until marriage." But critics, including a member of the review panel, said that the books shouldn't have been approved.
Here's the question to ask: that 'one' -- what kind of thing is it? It's most natural to read it as a curriculum standard, but I think the context suggests it's a textbook. The story seems to commit the same error the textbook does. That's pretty lame.

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