implement vs introduce

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vectra

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Hello,

These are the lines from one of my students' home assignments in which she commented on the article http://http://tweentribune.com/content/surfing-official-school-sport-guess-where:
'Well, to my mind it's a great idea, the only drawback being a danger of injuring yourself. In general I always approve of new kinds of sport being implemented into a timetable. It's definitely more useful then just to be coach potatoes as a lot of students have got used to.'
I can't agree that 'implement' is the best choice, speaking about the student's comments.
She might have tried to use the word after reading this sentence from the article:
'The state Department of Education is working with the new appointed Board of Education on developing a plan to implement surfing.'

I would change the sentence into:
'In general I always approve of new kinds of sports being introduced into a curriculum.'

What do you think about it?

Thank you for the time and help.
 
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emsr2d2

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Hello,

These are the lines from one of my students' home assignments in which she commented on the article http://http://tweentribune.com/content/surfing-official-school-sport-guess-where:
'Well, to my mind it's a great idea, the only drawback being a danger of injuring yourself. In general I always approve of new kinds of sport being implemented into a timetable. It's definitely more useful then just to be coach potatoes as a lot of students have got used to.'
I can't agree that 'implement' is the best choice, speaking about the student's comments.
She might have tried to use the word after reading this sentence from the article:
'The state Department of Education is working with the new appointed Board of Education on developing a plan to implement surfing.'

I would change the sentence into:
'In general I always approve of new kinds of sports being introduced into a curriculum.'

What do you think about it?

Thank you for the time and help.

I agree with you that "introduce" would be better. Will you be pointing out that "In general, I always approve..." is somewhat contradictory? Is it "In general, I approve ..." or "I always approve ..."? It can't be both.

I'm a little amused by the idea of a "coach potato" too! What a lovely typo.
 

5jj

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I agree with you. I feel that you implement policies and decisions, not school subjects or sports.
 

BobK

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I agree with you. I feel that you implement policies and decisions, not school subjects or sports.

:up:.And another candidate for implementation is a computer protocol - so that you can here IT types saying things like 'Crasho is an implementation of RFC 9999'. (I can't say that this is a development that I applaud, but having spent the first few months of my spell at DEC trying to resist it I just gave up!)

b

PS Are we sure that 'coach' was a simple typo - rather than confusion between /ɑʊ/ and /əʊ/? Both diphthongs end with /ʊ/ after all, and the metaphor is pretty random. (Alastair Campbell said it was a pun on 'tuber', which is fun though I haven't checked in any more reliable reference.)
 
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emsr2d2

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PS Are we sure that 'coach' was a simple typo - rather than confusion between /ɑʊ/ and /əʊ/? Both diphthongs end with /ʊ/ after all, and the metaphor is pretty random. (Alastair Campbell said it was a pun on 'tuber', which is fun though I haven't checked in any more reliable reference.)

I was attempting to draw attention to the error without suggesting that either the OP or the student actually believed that that was the phrase. I generally give people the benefit of the doubt first. We're all guilty of plenty of typos on this forum so I tend to head there first.

Having said that, it's not the first time I've seen this particular phrase misspelt/misunderstood/misused.
 

vectra

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Dear emsr2d2,
Thank you for pointing out this mistake; I should have noticed it myself. Of course, it is 'couch potato'.
I was attempting to draw attention to the error without suggesting that either the OP or the student actually believed that that was the phrase. I generally give people the benefit of the doubt first. We're all guilty of plenty of typos on this forum so I tend to head there first.

Having said that, it's not the first time I've seen this particular phrase misspelt/misunderstood/misused.
 
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