Why do some teachers consider IN FAIRNESS wrong?

Why do some teachers consider the phrase IN FAIRNESS wrong? As in these sentences: 1) Smoking is dangerous to your health. In Fairness, some smokers reach up to 90. 2) Mr. and Mrs. Jones are both ugly. In fairness, their daughters are very beautiful.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

I hear the phrase 'in all fairness' being used more often, but not 'in fairness'.

not a teacher

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Originally Posted by daddyjohn

Why do some teachers consider the phrase IN FAIRNESS wrong? As in these sentences: 1) Smoking is dangerous to your health. In Fairness, some smokers reach up to 90. 2) Mr. and Mrs. Jones are both ugly. In fairness, their daughters are very beautiful.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

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I really don't know, DJ. Teachers can be wrong about a lot of things.

In all fairness is the usual collocation.

"In fairness" - particularly with reference to the daughters - could mean their complexion.

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Originally Posted by daddyjohn

Why do some teachers consider the phrase IN FAIRNESS wrong? As in these sentences:

1) Smoking is dangerous to your health. In Fairness, some smokers reach up to 90.

2) Mr. and Mrs. Jones are both ugly. In fairness, their daughters are very beautiful.

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Because the phrase In fairness takes the prepositional phrase to (someone):

Ex: In all fairness to my fellow researchers, they are ...

Ex: In (all) fairness (to my fellow reseachers), my fellow researchers are ...

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Note that, in all fairness is a set phrase, which is why all is often omit.

You could use 'to be fair'and avoid the problem (if there is much of one).

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Originally Posted by Tdol

You could use 'to be fair'and avoid the problem (if there is much of one).

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How apropo. 8-) In all fairness ~ to be fair are used for just that very reason.

I think some teachers may warn their students to avoid 'in [all] fairness' because anyone who uses it runs the risk of mis-relating a clause. Such teachers would probably accept 'In all fairness, I should probably add that some dogs don't hate cats' but not 'In all fairness, some dogs don't hate cats' (because the subject of 'being fair' is not the dogs, but I). Suggesting that the second is somehow 'ungrammatical' ignores the importance of context, but it happens. :-(

b