Editor's Corner

Pet peeves, everyone has them.

Grammatical pet peeves, persnickety people with too much time on their hands have them.

Untrue! Unfair! I do not have too much time on my hands—and neither (I’m sure) do the readers who asked me to cover today’s topic: the phrase “graduated high school.”

Incorrect sentence: My son graduated high school in 2009.

What’s wrong with that sentence, you ask? It’s missing its preposition: from. (A preposition is a word that relates a noun or pronoun to other words.)

Correct sentence: My son graduated from high school in 2009.

Without the trusty preposition, from, it’s the high school that is actually graduating—and my son is the all-powerful being that made it happen. I think he’s pretty awesome, but come on!

According to the Quick & Dirty Tips website, more than half of us use this incorrect phrase. That’s kind of disheartening.

Of course, that number does not reflect subscribers of the Editor’s Corner, since we are nearly perfect in every way. J

When I searched the term “nearly perfect in every way” expecting to find something about Mary Poppins, I found this picture of Macy (a pet, but not a pet peeve), who was rescued days before a scheduled euthanasia.

Macy graduated from doggy prison and now she has a family who loves her. Happy Monday!

Donna Bradley Burcher | Technical Editor | Symitar®

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