The Weltchek Weekly

“They thought it was best to keep a lower profile and hone in on their specific policy areas.” That’s what Sarah Huckabee Sanders had to say this summer about Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s temporary retreat from the public eye.

A few days later, Ruth Bader Ginsberg reminisced about her late colleague Justice Antonin Scalia. “And if truth be told,” she said, “if I had my choice of dissenters when I was writing for the court, it would be Justice Scalia, because he was so smart, and he would home in on all the soft spots, and then I could fix up my majority opinion.”

Huckabee Sanders made the common mistake. She should have said that Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner thought it best to home in on their policy areas. If you home in on something, you’re zeroing in, or concentrating, on it.  

On its own, to hone means to sharpen, as in this recent headline, “Merck and its new multibillion-dollar partners hone plans for marketing onslaught.” Hone in as a phrase is incorrect, so strike it!

And one more thing about Huckabee Sanders’s statement. Technically, she should have said, “They thought it best to keep lower profiles,” because—technically—they each have one.

Read how I finally got home in correct. (It took being called out by a boss.)