THEN & NOW


1961 - 2020


‘TO INCLUDE’ DOESN’T


How far back does DOD’s curious locution go? L


et’s get one thing clear, “to include” does not mean “including.” In certain instances, it can sort of mean “including,” and in others, it can render a sentence unintelligible. And that’s where the problem is.


Since I began working at a DOD contractor in 2001, I’ve heard nearly all of the top ranks use it—members of Congress, Soldiers, contractors, government civilians. Everyone. But it remains as wrong now as it was nearly 20 years ago.


On the first page of the preface to the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s “DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms,” there’s a screaming example of this.


“Tis publication,” we learn, applies to pretty much everyone and everything within the DOD realm. Te weirdness starts in the next sentence. “It is the primary terminology source when preparing correspondence, to include policy, strategy, doctrine, and planning documents.” (Emphasis added.)


For someone who cares about clarity and meaning, that sentence is very close to mystifying, even if the vast majority of people within DOD would find it entirely comprehensible.


Te difference between including and to include is the differ- ence between open and closed. Tat’s because to include is an infinitive and including is a preposition. Including is also an “-ing” word, which makes it just a little bit harder, because


it could also be a gerund or present participle. It is neither; it’s a preposition.


Prepositions, in general, indicate position, direction or loca- tion spatially (up, down), temporally (before, after) and more subtle location-direction stuff, like “like.” Like is a preposi- tion that demonstrates a kind of proximity, even if it’s not physical. “Including” is a preposition that tells us that every- thing that follows it shall be included. (Include comes from the Latin for in and close, so including encloses. And what prepositions give meaning to are words that represent things. “Te anvil hangs over his head.” Not a lot of question there about where the anvil is.


What an infinitive does—or is supposed to do—is different, and infinitives can be a little flaky. By themselves, infinitives are rather conceptual. “To be or not to be.” “To receive is a blessing. To give is divine.” But for the most part, an infini- tive is paired with another verb to help it out. “I planned to send you the check, but I didn’t have your address.”


In that sentence, the verb is planned and to send is what I intended to do. (See how intended to do fits together? At the same time, notice the conditional nature of to send and to do.)


To recap, including is a preposition and to include is an infin- itive. And just as intelligence units and artillery units have different jobs, so do infinitives and prepositions. If you need air support, you don’t call in housekeeping.


https://asc.ar my.mil


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