Monday, February 16, 2015

How not to apologise - again !


I don't know what Darren Sammy said on the field of play in the match against Ireland today, but it was sufficiently bad for him to apologise on Twitter. See above. But this apology is a classic of its type. Sadly. 

It is in the passive voice. The swear word "came through the stump mike". Note that he doesn't say he swore and apologise for that. You might think that that is implied and self-evident. But why use a passive voice construct when you can say "I'm sorry I swore" ?

The reference to the stump mike is unnecessary anyway. The suggestion here is that it was the fact that the swearing was audible on the broadcast that is important, not the swearing itself. He is apologising for being caught, and for the fact that "young kids [were] listening and watching" not for the act of swearing itself. So what should he have tweeted, given the 140 character limit of the medium? How about:

"I would like to apologise to listeners/viewers for my swearing during today's cricket. It was a bad thing to have done and I'm very sorry."

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