Madam, - At the risk of appearing pedantic, I must declare that I positively winced upon reading the comment of the Department of Education's chief examiner in English that "the emergence of the mobile phone and the rise of text messaging. . .would appear to have impacted on standards of writing".
Surely the chief examiner in English should lead by example and avoid the use of such inelegant Americanisms? Verbing weirds words, and it must be stopped forthwith. - Yours, etc,
DARACH SANFEY, Greenpark Close, South Circular Road, Limerick.
Madam, - Is it not ironic that the chief examiner, rightly deploring the lowering of the standard of English due to the use of text messages, should use a noun as a verb ("impacted")? However, even more significant was the use of a split infinitive ("to further develop"). What hope is there? - Yours, etc,
Dr DERMOT J O'BRIEN, Stonepark Abbey, Dublin 14.