Grammar in the Media

Denver's First What?

2009-01-29T09:25:00.000-08:00

It is a strange event, combined with an even stranger article about it. The last sentence of the first paragraph isn't complete. It just stops. I even checked the page source to make sure that the word wasn't misplaced in the layout and I was just overlooking it. As you can see in the highlighted line in the source image, that's the entire paragraph. Where have all the editors gone? All it would have taken was for anyone to read it over once before publishing it. At least the apostrophes all seem to be in the correct locations in this article. But it would sure be nice to see an error-free article at some point in time. That's probably just wishful thinking, though.

Also, what is this "PJ Day" thing all about? Is it going to make employees look more professional? Is it an attempt to throw some silly fun into an otherwise dull business day? I always hated such events when I was in school and I refused to participate in them. My school peers were not always my friends, so I didn't see the point in "playing" with them. My co-workers are not my friends, and I fail to see the business need for such an event. I think if I saw my boss come into work in his pajamas, I would go home. Not that I don't like him, it's just that if he feels the need to not be professional, I will feel the need to not be there. Just my two cents, there. Overall, a very weird event.

On CNN?

2009-01-27T15:30:00.001-08:00

Wow. It's really a sad day when an article from one of the larger news groups has an error like this. I often encounter odd, but not necessarily incorrect wording, but punctuation errors are rare. What is with people and apostrophes lately? No one can seem to figure out when to use them and when to leave them out. I find this article particularly strange, as the title is so complicated for people who don't understand the apostrophe. The title is properly punctuated but the article's possessive word "parents" didn't have the same care.

I'm Back

2009-01-07T08:53:00.001-08:00

After a nice break from blogging, I've returned. It was nice to not read much news and therefore not stress over bad writers. :)

This article from People.com is sharing the news that Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck have a new baby in the house.

In the fifth paragraph, an unnecessary comma has invaded the sentence. In reality, there's not much to most of the "paragraphs" in the article, since 7 out of the 9 "paragraphs" are each really only one sentence long. I suppose the breaks are somewhat indicative of a separate thought, although the entire article is about one event. Maybe it is supposed to flow easier for the reader, but I think it's simply padding to make the article look bigger (and therefore more substantive) than it really is.

9News Revisited

2008-12-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

I decided to check on whether 9News fixed the errors in their Thanksgiving article. I discovered that the spelling of the word "tongue" has been corrected, but not either of the other errors that were noted. I had commented directly on the article and pointed out all three errors, so they should be aware of them. There were several other comments regarding the errors as well. The aggravating thing, though, is that rather than just fix the errors and move past it, 9News decided to disable commenting on this article. Rather than people that First Amendment right (the right that the media is always complaining they don't get enough of), they removed our right to the freedom of speech to save face. Are they hiding? Embarrassed? Annoyed? They should at least address the issue, not disable comments and ignore the problem altogether.

A Royal Problem

2008-12-01T07:48:00.000-08:00

While reading on the Apostrophe Catastrophes site, I was intrigued by the linked article about Prince Charles and his fight against bad grammar. While I think his intentions are quite noble, the author of the article apparently overlooked his own basic grammar skills and added an "s" to the caption under the picture. Where have all the editors gone?

Then=Time, Than=Compare

2008-11-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

Is it so difficult to learn that the word "then" implies a time, while the word "than" is used when doing a comparison? I wonder where the writers from the GoBlueWolverine.com site were trained? Bad grammar in a sports article doesn't help to remove the stigma that our society has placed on education in athletic programs. Such poor writing only substantiates the public's view of sports.

So Soon?

2008-11-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

Today's examples are already booming! Rasta, a good friend of mine, encountered an example of poor writing in the media, this time at Alabama's ABC 33/40 website. She said, "The author has put double periods at the end of two sentences and in the quote from Doug Horst, she left out the letter "r" in the word "closer." Re-reading this would have caught the error." Thanks, Rasta!

The Beginning

2008-11-26T10:29:00.000-08:00

Here is the pilot post for this blog. I found this example on Denver's 9news.com site. The truly funny thing about this article is that the link at the bottom has the phrase correct and the holiday capitalized. Many articles written for 9News are so poorly written that I find it amazing when the intended meaning of the message is still understandable.

I found three obvious errors in the article:

The word "tounge" should be "tongue"
The phrase "tounge and cheek" should be "tongue-in-cheek" (again, fixing the spelling)
Holiday names should always be capitalized, but the author has written "thanksgiving"

Can you find more?