About 10 years ago, I started hearing one of my former colleagues talking a lot about building a ‘straw man’. What he meant was sketching out a proposal approach in a rough outline that was detailed enough for people to start commenting on the direction of the proposal, but was not yet fully fleshed out.…… Continue reading Straw man
Tag: Idiom
Was born and was killed
Does the verb be have the same function in the two phrases was born and was killed? I don’t thing so. I just tried writing the following sentence: He was born in 1898 and killed in action in 1918. To my ear, that sounds very odd. I think it needs to be He was born…… Continue reading Was born and was killed