Graduated

SCENE: An athletic field, on which a large, wooden, platform stage has been set up. On it are several rows of empty folding chairs, a podium, and a microphone. In front of the stage are many more rows of chairs, in which several hundred people are sitting, restively, under a hot June sun.


A man in a seersucker suit takes out a linen handkerchief and dabs his forehead. . . . Another man takes off his khaki jacket and places it on the back of his chair. . . . A few throats are cleared. 


Women are fanning themselves with their programs. . . . Some people are beginning to text idly on their hand-held devices. . . . A tall blonde waves to a friend. The friend pantomimes to her, then makes her way across the aisle, her spike heel sinking into the soft turf . . . damn! . . . They air-kiss. . . .


A last-minute sound person taps on the mike. There is a sudden, ear-splitting, high-pitched squeal. . . . The crowd glares at the stage . . . complaining sotto voce. 


But wait: Are some of the voices becoming less sotto? . . . Is some of the patience wearing a bit thin?. . . Are there even, perhaps, small pockets of outright dissension? . . . 


In the second row, a woman in a Helen Kaminsky hat stands up and slaps a man in a yellow Hermès tie. . . . In the tenth row, a man in a Kelly-green jacket embroidered with little blue sailboats sidearms his bottle of Poland Spring at the man in front of him, soaking his Jos. A. Bank shirt. . . . 


The annual dialogue has begun, about . . .

How to Use the Verb “Graduated”

Is it “She graduated college”?

Can “graduate” be a transitive verb?

Is it “She was graduated from college”?

Should “graduated” be in the passive voice? Pearls can be graduated—can people be graduated?


Or is it “She graduated from college”?
This is the form used by “most people,” . . . but aren’t “most people” usually wrong?

Ms. Picky is sure that, having read this far, each of her readers has mentally noted what he or she considers to be the “only acceptable usage” and condemned any boor who might have chosen otherwise. Since everyone’s mind is already made up, she’s not sure how many readers are still with her, but, for what it’s worth, here’s the scoop anyway: 

“She graduated college,” is not now, and has never been, correct. Besides, if “graduated” were to be used as a transitive verb, common sense would dictate that one would have to say, “The college graduated her”—not “she graduated the college.”

“She was graduated from college” is correct—but is sooo nineteenth century.

“She graduated from college” is the correct usage and the one that is preferred today.*

While You’re Waiting

A couple of items that appear on the program the ladies are fanning themselves with are:

“Salutatorian,” which of course is the title given to the second-highest-academic ranking among the graduates. It comes from the Latin  “salutare,” meaning “to greet,” and, traditionally, the salutatorian is the first speaker at the graduation ceremony, and gives the salutation speech at the graduation ceremony; and

 “Valedictorian,” which of course is the title given to the highest-ranking graduate. It comes from the  Latin “vale dicere,” meaning “to say farewell,” and, traditionally, the valedictorian is the last speaker at the graduation ceremony, and bids farewell to his or her classmates before they all embark on their separate paths. (In some other English-speaking countries,“dux” is the equivalent of the American “valedictorian”  and, in France, the title is “major de promotion.”)



They should have taught you that in college. . . .

The Journalism Wall of Shame

The Journalism Wall of Shame displays errors in grammar, punctuation, or language that have appeared recently in the press. Submissions are welcome. Please include the publication's name and date, the story title, and the reporter's name. The publication of these errors in no way places blame for them on a particular person. Sometimes it is the reporter, sometimes the editor, sometimes the headline writer, but—somewhere in the system—somebody should have known better.

Will it never end? Only last week this blog discussed the principal parts of the verb “to sink”—sink, sank, and sunk—and this week, in Barron’s (“Streetwise: All News Is Bad News,” Jonathan R. Laing, June 4, 2011), we have this: 

“Likewise, chain-store sales stunk.”

It should, of course, be “Likewise, chain-store sales stank.”

Using incorrect verb forms stinks.

Remember the film of a few years ago (oh, all right, twenty years ago) Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, which gave us a similar error in verb form—in letters two feet high—on movie marquees all over the country? (At the time, Ms. Picky wanted to change the offensive u on her local theater’s marquee to an a, but her library ladder wouldn’t quite reach.)

All together now:

Sink, sank, sunk.

Stink, stank, stunk.

Shrink, shrank, shrunk.

Think—

(Sorry, Ms. Picky got carried away for a minute!)

____

*Dos, Don’ts and Maybes of English Usage, Theodore M. Bernstein. New York: Grammercy Books, 1977. 

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