<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> This evening I have written and submitted a reference for a former student of mine who is applying to university. In the UK, such applications are processed by a body called UCAS; the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. I duly submitted the reference online, and a few moments later, received an email confirmation. Here is the text of the beginning of the email: Dear David Boyce Your reference for Mr M*** H***** has now been received by us. The applicant will now be able to complete and send their application into us, we will contact them by email if they have provided a verified email address. Now, folks, I am not a pedant in matters linguistic. I appreciate that languages constantly change and evolve. But there is fascinating change and evolution, and there is slovenliness.  The secodn sentence of the above contains two annoying illiteracies; "into" should of course be "in to" (and the "in" is redundant in any case) and a Comma Splice has been used instead of a semicolon after "us". The body who sent that email to me are responsible for almost all of the admissions to Higher Education institutions in the UK.  If they are so illiterate in so short a communication, what are we to expect in general? Best regards, David. </body> </html>