Creative Editing
Chapter 5
Exercise 14
14. Edit the story below. Check facts carefully, giving special attention to the years Polk served as president of the United States, the sequence of his administration (10th, 20th, etc.), where he was born and the state where he served as governor.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Our 12th president is taking a licking at the post office counter. A stamp issued last month to mark the bicentennial of James K. Polk's birth is a dud at the stamp window, where customers instead are snapping up comic-strip characters and Marilyn Monroe.
"It's too bad, but the Polk stamp is pretty drab," said Judy Gurkin of the U.S. Postal Service. "It's the kind of stamp if you put it out there the customer is more likely to say, 'No, give me the flag.'"
Historians rank Polk, who served from 1847 to 1851, among the nation's 10 most effective presidents. His administration occupied Oregon, annexed Texas and acquired the California Territory.
The small, sepia-toned portrait on Polk's commemorative stamp captures all the earnestness for which he is known. Translation: It's dull.
Workers at several post offices said they had neither recieved the Polk stamp nor fielded inquiries about it.
"I have not moved the Polk stamp at all, which is a shame because he was a great man," said Postal Clerk Mary Drake, in Charlotte.
Polk was born south of Pineville, S. C., and moved to Columbia, Tennessee., when he was 11. He served as Tennessee's governor before being elected president.
End of Chapter 5 Exercises
| BACK TO PREVIOUS EXERCISE |