Another Gem

Another email from one of my Foundations students (I've changed her name to protect her identity):

hi this is jenny henessey, i went to the libray for new books but she told me i had to buy a new book, what should i do


For starters, Jenny, you should capitalize the first letter of your sentences. You should probably also capitalize your "I" pronouns and your name, too, while you're at it. When you've finished that, you ought to check your spelling and figure out where to put a few punctuation marks.

I wasn't aware that libraries were feminine - you might want to give your pronoun a proper antecedent to clear up the question of who "she" is, then decide whether you're talking about one book or many books. Once you're done with that, you should probably sign up for another Foundations class, because I'm not sure that the two classes we have left are going to do you much good.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Chili