Thursday, June 02, 2005

Peeves: a lot of people

Presenters and broadcast reporters and anchors who effusively use the term "a lot of people" sound too colloquial and unprofessional for my taste. It's vague on numerics and less formal than "many people" or "hundreds of people," for just two alternate examples. Speaking of numbers, is there any reason why reporters and commentators can't be more specific on that score? Don't say "a lot of people were left without power by the storm" (which even adds the sin of passive voice); say "the storm knocked out power for one thousand homes, according to power company estimates."

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