BrE or AmE or both?

Question

Here's a sentence from an AP story about the prevalance of Americans who have been in state or federal prisons. My inclination is to add a "what" after "No matter". The introductory clause does not feel like AmE to me. What do you think? And what about that comma used as a coordinating conjunction? Journalese or acceptable formal English writing?
"No matter their ethnic origin, people between ages 35 and 44 in
2001 had the highest rates of lifetime incarceration 6.5 percentfor men, almost 1 percent for women."
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/1110/8-18-2003/20030818010004 5.html

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Here's a sentence from an AP story about the prevalance of Americans who have been in state or federal prisons. ... 44 in 2001 had the highest rates of lifetime incarceration 6.5 percent for men, almost 1 percent for women."[/nq]
From a BrE speaker:
I agree with you about the "what". I'd be happier with a semicolon instead of the comma.
I'd also prefer "between the ages of ...".
David

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"No matter their ethnic origin, people between ages 35 and 44 in 2001 had the highest rates of lifetime incarceration 6.5 percent for men, almost 1 percent for women."[/nq]
No mystery about this sentence: it conforms
to a (pseudoscientific) faith in abstract categories, here "rate of lifetime incarceration" for "people who have ever been imprisoned."

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
dphillipson(at)trytel.com

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Here's a sentence from an AP story about the prevalance of Americans who have been in state or federal prisons. ... 2001 had the highest rates of lifetime incarceration 6.5 percent for men, almost 1 percent for women." http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/1110/8-18-2003/20030818010004 5.html[/nq]
I'd need a "was" along with the what. I think the author wanted "Regardless of their ethnic origin." But what he really wanted was "In each ethnic category studied".
I'm quite happy with the comma instead of "and" in that sentence, in any register from colloquial speech to formal writing.

There's a lot of imprecise and annoying (to me) writing throughout the article.

Jerry Friedman

Usenet · Answer

jerry (Email Removed) (Jerry Friedman) burbled
[nq:2]Here's a sentence from an AP story about the prevalance ... percent for men, almost 1 percent for women." http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/1110/8-18-2003/20030818010004 5.html[/nq]
[nq:1]I'd need a "was" along with the what.[/nq]
It's certainly not wrong or bad style, but it would have to go as superfluous if there were too many words in the article.
[nq:1]I think the author wanted "Regardless of their ethnic origin." But what he really wanted was "In each ethnic category studied".[/nq]
Much better, you're right.
[nq:1]I'm quite happy with the comma instead of "and" in that sentence, in any register from colloquial speech to formal writing.[/nq]
Some medical journals would not let me use that comma but would require an "and", eg The Journal of Vascular Surgery .
[nq:1]There's a lot of imprecise and annoying (to me) writing throughout the article.[/nq]
Yes, it's typical of much too much journalistic typing these days. I suppose, though, that it wasn't much different when I was a kid and didn't notice such things.

BrE or AmE or both?

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