a. If convicted, he could face a possible prison term of up to 10 years.
b. If convicted, he could face a prison term of up to 10 years.
c. If convicted, he faces a possible prison term of up to 10 years.
d. He could face a possible prison term of up to 10 years.
e. If convicted, he faces a prison term of up to 10 years.
f. He faces a possible prison term of up to 10 years.
g. He could face a prison term of up to 10 years.
h. He faces a prison term of up to 10 years.
i. He faces a prison term of 10 years.
I think we would all agree that (a) overqualifies things to the point of redundancy. And most of us would agree that (i) doesn't qualify things enough. Reasonable people will differ, but I vote for (h). I think you could face time in prison without being sentenced to time in prison. And -- context, context, context -- do you think any readers need to be told that the prison sentence would apply only in the case of a conviction?
If you're inclined to play things extremely safe, there's a (j):
If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
If you're inclined to object to "up to" when there's no yardstick involved, you're at the wrong site.
2 comments:
My vote's for f or g... I think folks need to be told it's only a possibility at this point. I feel h and i imply it's a done deal, and the sentence looms. I don't think folks (even reasonable people) should assume that the conviction is still pending... if h or i were all I got from the story (headline, glance at the lead), I could get the wrong idea about the poor fellow's status.
And I am so down with abgs' "maximum of 10-25 years." That is quite egregious, and quite common.
As an aside, The Faces box set's out. As box sets do, it paints the band as genre-defining. In anticipation of its release, the headline could have read:
FACES FACE FACE LIFT
One doesn't face a sentence until one is convicted. When you face adversity with courage, that doesn't mean to say you expect some adversity at some point in the future, it means you're already suffering it. I think that face is a good word for confronting what you have, but is diluted by its use as you have it here. I accept that this is one more losing battle because "face" is creeping lexically into including an idea of "expecting", but if copy editors don't fight those battles nonetheless, who will?
I think none of the sentences given is correct. (h) says he's been convicted and faces a sentence, which is being decided. I like with "If convicted, he will face a prison sentence of up to ten years" too. If he's convicted, he'll certainly face a sentence. There's no "could" about it. Using "could" implies that upon conviction, he might just be set free. So (j) is impossible too.
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