A retired high school English teacher has made headlines after she corrected a letter signed by President Donald Trump that she received from the White House after which she mailed the corrected copy back to the White House.
Yvonne Mason, who retired last year after a 17-year teaching career in South Carolina, described the letter as “stylistically appalling”. She said it would barely have received a passing grade if a high schooler had written it.
Mason told Greenville News: “If it had been written in middle school, I’d give it a C or C-plus. If it had been written in high school, I’d give it a D.”
The veteran teacher shared an image of the letter, covered with corrections she’d made in purple ink, on Facebook earlier this month.
She wrote at the top of the letter: “Have y’all tried grammar and style check?”
“OMG this is WRONG!” she wrote elsewhere, pointing out a capitalization error.
Mason told the Greenville newspaper she received the letter dated, May 3, 2018, from the White House after writing a note to the president asking him to meet individually with families of the victims of February’s Parkland, Florida, high school shooting.
Mason said she expected more from a letter from the White House.
“When you get letters from the highest level of government, you expect them to be at least mechanically correct,” she said.
Ms. Mason said the letter stood in contrast to other beautifully written letters she has received from politicians.
The White House is yet to respond to the corrections.
