Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

Hello everyone.

The following passage is from a news story.

E-mail may have revolutionized our communication, making it faster, easier, more practical. But that doesn't mean the handwritten note is dead. Instead, the act of putting pen to paper seems to have gained in currency. Now, it's what you do to say something special, or heartfelt, or really important.

It's not a question of being e-mail ignorant. Walker, a history professor in South Carolina, spends lots of time on the Internet. But that's just the point. She could easily e-mail her college friend, Janet, but instead they choose entertaining postcards, and dash off a few personal notes, once or even a few times a week.

(http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/news/celebrity/sns-ap-pen-to-paper,0,3719718.story?coll=mmx-celebrity_heds)

It seems to me that the phrase �her college friend, Janet� in the second paragraph should have been �one of her college friends, Janet� in the text above. Common sense tells me Walker has more than one college friends. What so you think?

Best regards,
Fw

[Sirius]

I think the intent is to indicate that Walker knows Janet from college as opposed to being a work friend or a friend from a different social setting.

I don't believe it is meant to convey the idea that Walker has only one college friend

[fw]

Thank you, Sirius, for your prompt reply.

Grammar books at hand suggest that you should not, out of the blue, write something like, "My friend came to see me yesterday." It should have been something instead like, "One of my friends came to see me yesterday."

I am wondering why it is OK to use "her college friend, Janet," without any mentioning of Janet before in the text, when she has more than one college friends.


Here are two of my follow-up questions:
(A) Are both #1 and #2 very natural English?

(Out of the blue.)
1. My college friend e-mailed me yesterday.
2. I e-mailed my college friend yesterday.

(B) Are both #1 and #2 very natural English?

(Out of the blue.)
1. My college friend, Janet, e-mailed me yesterday.
2. I e-mailed my college friend, Janet, yesterday.

fw