Watch Your Word Choice

I hope all of my readers had a wonderful Christmas. I also hope you are looking forward to a good New Year.

Birmingham will elect a new mayor in a run-off election on January 19. The two candidates are very different--William Bell is a political veteran, and Patrick Cooper is an attorney with a background in the business sector.



In a recent interview article about the candidates' opinions on economic growth, the reporter made the following statement:



They agree on many economic development fundamentals, but they come at economic development from different approaches.



This is confusing wording, mainly because "come at" and "approach" mean the same thing. What the reporter wants to get across is that these two candidates approach the issue FROM DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS or maybe that they HAVE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES. The sentence should read like something close to one of the following:



They agree on many economic development fundamentals, but they approach economic development from different directions.



They agree on many economic development fundamentals, but they have different perspectives on how to achieve economic development.



I hope you agree that either of these would be clearer.