Legal Writing

Word choice: Bring and take

By Pam_Nelson

A reader objected to this usage in Monday's paper: Stephen Colbert brings his Comedy Central show to Iraq. Indeed, because Colbert was in the United States to start, he must take his show to Iraq.

I've run across a couple of other instances of bring where I would use take. 

Folks attending the John Hope Franklin celebration at Duke Chapel should park either in the Bryan Center parking garage or in lots along Duke University Road near Chapel Drive, where shuttles will bring them to campus. It seems to me that the shuttle start at the parking areas and take the people to campus.

And this:

Bring your kids and your dog to Dog Days of June at Fred G. Bond Metro Park, Field No. 2, 801 High House Rd., Cary, from 9 a.m .to 1 p.m. Saturday. I presume that the parents start at home and take the children and the pets to the park.

As Webster's New World English Grammar Handbook says, "the rule governing the use of these two verbs is quite simple: Use take to indicate direction away from the speaker; use bring to indicate direction toward the speaker." In the instances cited above, though, the speaker is not involved at all. That makes it harder, I suppose, for writers to decide. Still, I think the perspective is important. Where the action starts is the determining factor for me in preferring take.

I've written about bring and take before, and in that post, I cited a very good treatment of bring and take by John McIntyre. He takes on the persnickety among us.

P.S. McIntyre recently was laid off from his job as head of the copy desk at The Baltimore Sun. He has a new blog that I will continue to turn to. If there is such a thing as a star among copy editors, it is John.

Full post as published by Triangle Grammar Guide on June 09, 2009 (boomark / email).