What is being omitted, especially on message boards, is the question: "Does anyone know.." For instance:

"Does anyone know how to get from the airport to downtown?"

It's somewhat similar to asking people at a party:

"Drinks?"

At a party, drinks are expected. On message boards, questions are equally expected.

These are some examples of the use of "impact" as a noun cited in Webster Unabridged Dictionary:

"air rendered incandescent by the vehemence of the impacts of the electrons against its molecules" -- K.K.Darrow

"a way of securing a maximum of dramatic impact on the reader -- W.M.Frohock

"the impact of modern science and technology upon society as a whole" -- Harrison Brown

"loses the impact of the basic story in a maze of philosophies" -- Whitney Betts

"American youth in the early 1930s felt spiritually paralyzed by the impact of confusing events" -- J.W.Chase

As requested, I added the preview page. I you see any issues with it, please let me know.

A possible confusion arises because the second time the event is held, it is the first time in a year. Suppose you organize an event at your neighborhood park. You have no intention of repeating it, but it turns out to be a huge success, and many people suggested that it should be done again. You then decide to do it every year. In this scenario, the first time it is done as an annual event is the second time. The original event had no concept of "annual" (could have turned out to be "semi-annual" or "monthly"). So, the answer isn't so clear-cut.

It is interesting that something that is grammatically correct would sound so wrong. This is the difficult part of learning a foreign language; even if you can construct a grammatically correct sentence, it may still sound very wrong.

For instance, someone might say, "Could you attach the painting against the wall?" instead of saying, "Could you hang the painting on the wall?" You get the point, but it sounds wrong, because we are so used to using the word "hang" for paintings. If you go to a foreign country, and if you literally translated "hang", it might actually sound silly in the language where paintings are seen as "attached" to the wall.

In other words, for every situation, we need to learn an appropriate way of phrasing it. This is the stuff that takes forever to learn.

I would guess that everyone used to say "I feel concerned" but over a long period of time, "ed" was dropped through common usage. It's sort of like how "ice cream" used to be "iced cream". For "iced tea" vs. "ice tea", we are still in the transition period where both are commonly used.

When we pronounce "scared" and "worried", the "ed" sound is quite strong. It is hard to miss hearing it. With "concerned", the "ed" is much subtler, and in many situations, we might not hear it at all even if the person meant to say "concerned". So, it is much more likely to be dropped. In this way, "I feel concern" became so common that it sounds perfectly correct, even though no one says "I feel worry" or "I feel scare". (According to my dictionary, "scare" is not only a cause of fear, but also the feeling itself; so it should be grammatically correct to say, "I feel scare," but we never say it.)

Hi Janet,

Thank you for the clarification, but could you clarify one more thing?

Does that mean, "I feel scare" and "I feel worry" are both also grammatically correct?

I guess my question comes down to whether it is correct by virtue of common usage or grammar (or both). If "I feel concern" is grammatically correct, is "I feel scare" also grammatically correct? (The only difference being that the latter is never used.) After all, "scare" is a feeling of fear, like "concern" is a feeling of being concerned.

The word "fear", however, functions quite differently from "concern". If I say, "I feel feared", the meaning changes from "I feel fear". It is no longer I who feel fear, but someone else fearing me.

Another similar example to "concern" is "worry". Would "I feel worry" be also correct?

Another interesting comparison is "trouble". If I say, "I feel trouble", it would mean that I feel that a problem is about to happen. If I say, "I feel troubled", it would mean that I am disturbed by something.

I think there is a similar connotation for "concern" as well. If I say, "I feel concern", there is a possibility that the "concern" isn't actually mine. I might be feeling the concern someone else is feeling, whereas "I feel concerned" has no ambiguity.

Do you feel that "I feel concern" and "I feel concerned" are both equally good? (One is not superior to the other?)

Usually parentheses are for ancillary thoughts whereas square brackets are for editorial notes. In this example above, "read it Money" is a secondary thought he has, and "of dollars" clarifies what the number is referring to.

I have a feeling that this is a case where the writer added a superfluous clause, just because the sentence sounded more professional with it.

This question is really funny to me, not because it is a silly question, but because it is actually a legitimate question. It seems like a double-bind situation where you are screwed either way.

Personally, I would correct his mistake, and leave it at that. If you feel that this may cause some sort of problem, I would add a footnote explaining that what he actually said was “service”. This way, you would not have to draw too much attention to this minor issue. If you don’t correct his mistake, and if you don’t insert [sic], people who know that it should be “survey” would get confused. If you do insert [sic], it draws too much attention to it, and would potentially embarrass this person.