Use of the Word HOPEFULLY

To: poo@cts.com

RE: Corrections in punctuation and spelling needed

Subject: Stevenson's use of hopefully

Dear Gentlemen or Ladies:

It would help your argument if the word "fails" was not misspelled as "falls," and if you used the proper punctuation in the sentence "Hopefully, the sun will come out soon." [you do not use the comma after "hopefully."]

Actually I don't really see what is the controversy. The construct clearly seems to be that instead of this phrase "It is [fill in appropriate word] that," you can take the appropriate word add "ly" at the end and put it at the beginning of the sentence followed by a comma. Therefore, if "we are hopeful that" or "it is hopeful that" would become hopefully. Regretful is an exception that proves the rule; personally, however, I don't see why saying Regretfully is so wrong. It follow the general rule. To me it appears more a matter of snobbery (colloquial versus proper or formal) rather than incorrect usage. That is my unlearned, yet common sense, observation.

Anyway, I was really prompted to write because "fails" was misspelled as "falls."

Thank you for your time in reading this and your consideration.

P. S. I forgot to add to my prior email, that based on the grammar usage I was taught in elementary school, Stevenson's use and it's understanding are correct. If read the way it is written, hopefully should be interpreted to modify what immediately precedes it, which is "to travel." Therefore, people who read it the other way were not versant in the proper structure as much as they thought, or easily confuse themselves because they read into things (or words) something that is not there if they properly understand and apply the rules of grammatical construction. Whew! J

Again, thank you for your time and consideration.