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'There is one thing that matters - to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people', wrote Logan Pearsall Smith.

The desk hack, poring over the day's news reports, has the more modest aim 'of setting out the facts clearly and comprehensibly, breaking complex matters down into terms which could be readily understood' by the reader/viewer/listener. And he or she has mastered the art of doing all this against the clock.

Leader writers, though bound by newspaper deadlines, have more room for manoeuvre, unlike the common hacks. Specialists though they are, they cannot get away with stodgy fare. The clarity of their thought or feeling about a subject, reflected in their work, shows that they have long made it their mental food and assimilated it. I was therefore taken aback when I came across the following sentence in an editorial:

'The denial of( basic ingredients for a healthy childhood both in terms of a congenial family environment and the consequent deprivation of every other form of meaningful socialization in the formative years impose avoidable social costs that could potentially result in personality disorders and deviant social behaviour patterns.'

The word 'both' seems to be an interloper here. Without it the sentence makes some sense. 

Two things entail avoidable social costs -- the denial of the basic ingredient of a healthy childhood, namely a congenial family environment, and the resultant deprivation of every other form of socialization in a person's formative years. The results could be personality disorders and patterns of deviant social behaviour.

What the scribe wanted to say was perhaps on the following lines: The denial of the basic ingredients of a(healthy childhood, in terms of both a congenial family environment and every other mode of meaningful socialization flowing from it, imposes/entails avoidable social costs, which could lead to personality disorders and deviant social behaviour.

Alternatively, we may say: The denial of(the basic ingredients of a healthy childhood, both in terms of a congenial family environment and in terms of every other mode of meaningful socialization flowing from it, imposes/entails avoidable social costs, which could lead to personality disorders and deviant social behaviour.

We can also write thus: The denial of the basic ingredient of a(healthy childhood, in terms of a congenial family environment, and the consequent deprivation of every other form of meaningful socialization in the formative years, impose/entail avoidable social costs, which could lead to personality disorders and deviant social behaviour patterns.

The important thing (to quote Vallins) is to place the correlative conjunctions (both and) in the right position, so that they introduce, to use the language of mathematics, 'like terms'. In the example I quoted this rule was not followed.

Another sentence in the same editorial also ignores it. The sentence reads: 'It (the latest initiative) is a potential long-term investment both in shaping individuals' personal growth and enhancing overall social stability'.

The correct formulation reads: 'It is a potential long-term investment both in shaping the individuals' personal growth and in enhancing overall social stability'.

The sociologist's jargon - socialization, deviant behaviour and social costs - perhaps could not be avoided in this context. 'Socialization' is used in the restricted sense of adapting someone/oneself to society. Example: Children languishing in jails along with their convicted mothers have no scope for meaningful socialization.

'Socialize' with (someone) means 'mix socially with others'. Example: Friday's dinner at Hari's afforded the visiting GM an opportunity to socialize with the branch staff.

'Which could lead to personality disorders and deviant social behaviour patterns' in my first example is a coordinate clause. 'Which' here stands for 'and this'.

I recall here an Arnold quote: Joubert, he says, thought that 'the truth was never really and worthily said, so long as the least cloud, clumsiness, and repulsiveness hung about the expression of it'.

Rather too lofty an ideal, isn't it?

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