From the
Chicago Sun Times
Lets go over the worst of this. While yours truly has made his share of grammar and spelling errors, there are some things that I've never done. If this is indicative of the education that Malik is getting, there is something very wrong.
1)" Ask you sum": Ask you what? "Sum" What is "sum" where did that come from? Note to Malik AND his parent. How about less time on twitter and cell phones with the horrendous "English" used there, and more time on properly written books (preferably science)? "sum" may be acceptable for a character constrained place like Twitter, but it has no place whatsoever in a letter other than a direct quote.
2)"Imma": Did he mean "I'm a"? because "imma" is not a word. "imma" is a form of saying "I'm a" with the pause between "I'm" and "a" taken out. Again any literate person knows that "Imma" has no place in formal writing other than a direct quote.
3) "Black African-American": Really?
4) Why is that entire letter one big run on sentence? My GOD!!! I know I've made some poor sentence construction but damn. Does this kid know what a period is?
5) "I am the only boy on my mom's side of the family": And we wonder why...
6) "I just wanna be safe": By the age of 13 one should know a few things:
a) Santa does not exist.
Therefore
b) Santa has nothing to do with your safety.
Now..
I barely can’t even go outside anymore, can’t ride my bike, can’t play ball, can’t go play with my cousins, because you have to watch your back every 30 seconds,” said Malik, who hopes to go to college, play basketball and be drafted, and if not, become a teacher.
“I know the president’s letter isn’t going to like solve the safety reasons out here, and it’s still going to be dangerous, but I’m excited the president of the United States wrote to me, and I can’t wait to show it off.”
College? Not writing like that.
Basketball and drafted: Long odds. Hit the books young man.
Become a teacher: Not with writing like that.
We gotta do better. Gotta do better.
