You Cannot Graciously Accept

[Steve_Alaniz]

Hi All,
Hey I notice a lot of teams out there accept their invitation to an alliance by saying "Team xxxx Graciously accepts your invitation" (xxxx = your team number smartie!) This is a contradiction of terms. Gracious is one of those adjectives you cannot apply to yourself. Others have to apply it to you. Calling your own action gracious is a form of self praise, being a bit presumptuous and lacking the humility that goes along with tact and courtesy. So you can never really self apply the word "Gracious". It's like saying "We silently accept".
Yes I KNOW what you mean and I agree that the spirit and understanding among FIRSTies (Is that a word?) is that the acceptance is in the spirit of gracious professionalism. SO why am I bothering if we all understand?
OK Here's the deal. It's bad English. Your English teachers might start dumping essays on FIRST team members over the regional weekends if they hear you misuse "Gracious".
Just kidding, they'd never do that.
The bigger reason is simple. The media usually show up at the finals hoping for a story. If they could accurately predict the timing they would show up for the last round of the last match...(Sorry kids, good news don't sell newspapers and FIRST is always good news!) But I have seen them there for the alliance picks. These are men and women who have been savaged by unscrupulous modifiers of otherwise perfect text, AKA Editors. They will pick up immediately that you are misusing "Gracious" and if they are really mean will quote you so that the Editor can't correct it and well... your school will come across as one that teaches robotic but whose students ain't got no sense of good grammar.
It's far safer to "...Happily accept your gracious invitation..." or "...Gratefully accept your invitation..." something that doesn't sacrifice proper wording and yet still shows the spirit of FIRST.
Having said all this, if someone can demonstrate that "Gracious" actually CAN correctly be used as a self description, then I will "Graciously stand corrected."

JUST A THOUGHT!

Best wishes

Steve Alaniz

[65_Xero_Huskie]

uhm...wow?

When the person says this they are showing that their TEAM is accepting the offer graciously. not them, they are a representative so it makes it alright to say that. Its the same as saying "Team xxxx accepts your iinvitation with great honor".

[Travis Hoffman]

This topic has been covered before. Go here for all the fun....

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ciously+accept

[Steve_Alaniz]

Originally Posted by T. Hoffman

This topic has been covered before. Go here for all the fun....

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ciously+accept

Whoa! MY APOLOGIES!
I didn't see that thread! Still the fact that this is continuing to happen means it still needs to be dealt with. All I can say is, you wouldn't violate the rules for programming language no need to violate the rules of the English language.

Steve Alaniz

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Steve_Alaniz

All I can say is, you wouldn't violate the rules for programming language no need to violate the rules of the English language.

The code won't compile if you violate the rules of the programming language...but English is more robust, it seems to work pretty well no matter how we engineering nerds mangle it!

[Libby K]

I'm a personal fan of "Team XXXX accepts Team XXXX's gracious offer."

or ...

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Instead of "Team XXXX graciously accepts" how about just a big "yeaaaahhhhh!" ?

[ALIBI]

"In the spirit of Gracious Professionalism, Team XXXX accepts your invitation."

[Taylor]

"Thanks for thinking of us, it would be WICKED AWESOME to join you guys."
-paraphrased from 166.

[dpraedan]

Originally Posted by boiler

"Thanks for thinking of us, it would be WICKED AWESOME to join you guys."
-paraphrased from 166.

We did that when we were in SVR, thought it'd be fun to bring a little of the east coast out west with us

[Dreadfrost]

I cant believe this still gets brought up no matter how many years past. Its simply the other team that is being gracious for offering their alliance spot to you. Therefore one would say:

"Team XXXX accepts your gracious offer."
or
"Thank you for the gracious offer however team XXXX declines."

So once and for all pick one and use it, and lets make SURE this thread isn't repeated again next year.

You know what actually i'd like to see FIRST members to pick up a thesaursus and look up gracious, or go to http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/gracious and pick a different word and use it in Atlanta.

See you all there, and remember ill be listening!!!

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Dreadfrost

I cant believe this still gets brought up no matter how many years past. Its simply the other team that is being gracious for offering their alliance spot to you. Therefore one would say:

"Team XXXX accepts your gracious offer."
or
"Thank you for the gracious offer however team XXXX declines."

So once and for all pick one and use it, and lets make SURE this thread isn't repeated again next year.

You know what actually i'd like to see FIRST members to pick up a thesaursus and look up gracious, or go to http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/gracious and pick a different word and use it in Atlanta.

See you all there, and remember ill be listening!!!

It will probably be brought up every year. I would estimate that outside of FIRST, 95% of engineers have bad diction when it comes to non-scientific terminology. An FRC student "Graciously Accepting" isn't an anomoly.

By the way, are we resurrecting the contest for the championships this year?

[Alan Anderson]

At IRI last year, against the backdrop of splendid examples of creativity in accepting an alliance captain's invitation, I overheard a couple of veteran students grumbling about the situation. "What's with all the newbies? Didn't anyone tell them what to say? Just go 'we graciously accept' and be done with it!" I decided to find their attitude amusing rather than irritating.

Originally Posted by Dreadfrost

I cant believe this still gets brought up no matter how many years past...lets make SURE this thread isn't repeated again next year.

You do realize that you are the one who brought it up this time? And that you are the one posting this year on a long-dormant thread? It seems that your goal would have been served well by simply not commenting.

[Molten]

Agreed. Besides, for my ME degree I just have to take 1 english class and 1 speech class. I figure this is to make sure that I am able to talk and able to write. If I needed to write really well, they would require more. However, instead I am taking 3 years of solid math. That shows you what an engineer is expected to know. Ask me a math question, and I will get you an answer.(might not be 100% correct) But give me a grammar question and I am clueless. Engineers talk with math first, and grammar second. It is a fact of life. If you want a crowd with good grammar, look into an english based club. However, if you are just wanting a crowd you can learn something and have fun doing it; well, you are in the right place.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Molten

Agreed. Besides, for my ME degree I just have to take 1 english class and 1 speech class. I figure this is to make sure that I am able to talk and able to write. If I needed to write really well, they would require more. However, instead I am taking 3 years of solid math. That shows you what an engineer is expected to know. Ask me a math question, and I will get you an answer.(might not be 100% correct) But give me a grammar question and I am clueless. Engineers talk with math first, and grammar second. It is a fact of life. If you want a crowd with good grammar, look into an english based club. However, if you are just wanting a crowd you can learn something and have fun doing it; well, you are in the right place.

I think we all should strive to be better than what is expected of us.

[Molten]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

I think we all should strive to be better than what is expected of us.

Now, the only question is "who decides what is better?"

I personally believe that the quickest/shortest way to convey a thought is the best way. I am a very function over form person. That means that if I must use bad grammar to get my point acrossed, I will. To some, better means being correct. To me, it means being functional.