I was saddened to read about the U.S. Army's error in sending 7,000 letters addressed to "Dear John Doe" to family members of soldiers who had died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Elisabeth Bumiller of The New York Times wrote the story published on January 8.
According to The New York Times, the Army learned about the error when people who had received the letter, which included information about groups that help families of deceased soldiers, phoned and expressed their thanks for the information but mentioned that their letter was addressed incorrectly.
What an unfortunate mistake! "John Doe" is the name frequently used for an unidentified dead man, and it communicates anonymity and isolation in death. For a living family member to be addressed as "John Doe"–especially after having experienced the death of a loved one–is . . . it's about as bad as it gets in writing blunders.
I express my condolences to the families of these soldiers, and I regret any additional suffering the John Doe letters may have caused.
It is not necessary to condemn the U.S. Army for the egregious writing error. No doubt there is plenty of self-condemnation, blame, and shame flying around.
But all of us can learn from the error, and here is the lesson: Never send out a mail-merged letter without checking many examples to be sure addresses and greetings have been merged correctly.
When I send mailings to a group, I insist that virtually every letter be checked for an accurate greeting, address, and letter-envelope match. Although my caution may seem excessive, I have never had to apologize for a mass mailing gone wrong–and I know several people who have.
Let's learn from the Army's painful lesson.
Lynn
Syntax Training
