I bloody hate (Part II)... Decreasing standards of editing in newspapers

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WhoAmI

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I bloody hate to see newspaper articles where the journalist has been too lazy or in too much of a rush to properly proof-read their work. This has been particularly prevalent in the Irish Independent and Evening Herald over the past few years, with articles missing words, having poor grammar, incorrect spelling, incorrect words with correct words or bad layout.

I know that the layout on the page of any particular piece cannot be and is not the responsibility of the individual journalist, so blame has to be shared across the paper as a whole. It is unfortunate, however, that these people seem to be too heavily reliant on the Auto Correct feature of their favoured word processor, which may perhaps give the correct spelling of a word but in the wrong context. Sometimes, it seems that the poor computer has given up on some pieces.

I'm sure it's not just me...
 
The Kildare Post (and I am sure other **Name of County** Posts) spelt (and continues to spell) Centre as Center all the way through the paper....and they tend to talk alot of centres of one sort or another. Very irritating. I think they had other americanisms in there as well.

I cannot stand it when I see the american spelling of words in papers, billboards, signs etc here.

Apparently it is now acceptable for students to submit work with spelling of various words in the American way. if it were me, they'd lose an automatic 10% for ignorance...and I don't care about spell checker doing it american, this is basic english.
 
Westbound said:
Apparently it is now acceptable for students to submit work with spelling of various words in the American way. if it were me, they'd lose an automatic 10% for ignorance....
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The poor kids spend so much time in school studying Irish they have little time to learn anything else. Stop 100 Irish people and ask them to give directions to someone in French or German, for example.
 
From the editorial of today's Irish Times.


"...were denounced over the ensuing 40 years as Lundy's and traitors"

One Lundy two ??????
 
ajapale said:
From the editorial of today's Irish Times.


"...were denounced over the ensuing 40 years as Lundy's and traitors"

One Lundy two ??????
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...and don't forget the extraneous apostrophe!

I'd generally expect better from the IT I have to say.
 

This will probably come across as a rant (probably no more than other posts do lol) but my attitude towards communication is the following:

Due to a lack of ignorance, I deliberately use American English whenever I can get away with it. I would write 'nite' instead of 'night' on a small note for example while of course being aware that some people with particular hang ups could have a problem with it. I see it as their problem. I don't want to speak 'the Queens' English.' I don't have a Queen and I don't want one. I would prefer to look westwards.
American English is a perfectly valid and accepted international form of expression, far more widely spoken than 'Queens' English' and I see no reason why anyone should be discriminating against someone else for deliberately using it. My view is that especially docking 10% in this context is wrong. In the particular context quoted above I would be docked 10% because of a deliberate lack of ignorance
 
There is no single authority when it comes to proper communication through the medium of English.

rabbit said:
We are only discussing correct grammar, spelling etc etc
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I was also discussing correct grammar, spelling etc etc and my view of what constitutes correct grammar, spelling etc etc

rabbit said:
Nobody is forcing you too.
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If it affects grades in a particular examination context, notwithstanding the candidate being a good communicator who knows his or her subject inside out or if it brings ill informed narrow minded judgements upon a person using American English then in my view that would qualify as being forced or pressured.
 
being from the old school where spelling, commas reigned supreme i have slowly realised that the general contents of an article is far more important than the odd mistake which can raise the hackles of some people
 
rabbit said:
The IT went to the dogs about 30 years ago.
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I'm not saying it's perfect by any means, but I still think it is by far the best written, photographed, and presented paper in this country and not generally prone to grammatical or punctuation errors...but that's maybe another thread

The Independent by the way can be remarkably shoddy.
 
Whether it be the "Queen's English" or "Seánie down the road's English" is irrelevant. It just so happens that the correct and accepted way of spelling certain words here is the same as it is in the UK (and Canada, and Australia, for that matter). American English should only be used in America.

Just my two (Euro) cents...
 
WhoAmI said:
It just so happens that the correct and accepted way of spelling certain words here is the same as it is in the UK
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Not any more
Even Westbound who would agree with you has said: 'Apparently it is now acceptable for students to submit work with spelling of various words in the American way.'

WhoAmI said:
American English should only be used in America.
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I disagree. We should be using the English which is used internationally. What kind of English do you think Chinese people are learning for example ?
 
What about the standard of journalism in the Indo. It's like the Sun's jorno's put it together in their spare time. Here is the list of the current "top" stories on the website.
  1. [broken link removed]
  2. http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/world-news/europe/crufts-betting-suspended-amid-superdog-fears-1308311.html (Crufts betting suspended amid 'superdog' fears)
  3. Gun-toting GAA player is jailed
  4. Saved . . . only seconds from mid-air disaster
  7. It's justice for our beloved Siobhan
  8. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/a-stormy-love-affair-that-ended-in-tragedy-1307953.html (A stormy love affair that ended in tragedy)
  9. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/chuckle-brothers-go-their-separate-ways-1307891.html ('Chuckle Brothers' go their separate ways)
  10. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/transport-plan-comes-off-the-rails-as-major-delays-forecast-1307961.html (Transport plan comes off the rails as major delays forecast)
 
To my mind the job of langague is to allow individuals to communicate with each other. If someone uses the word 'nite' or 'night' and the person reading the article understands what is being said then 'job done'.
 
I sometimes write press releases.

Its amazing how many papers just cut and paste the content without any changes. If they decide to print story relating to the release, quite often several papers will have word for word identical articles pasted from the press release. Whats worse, is sometimes journalists pass it off as their own work - very often some journalists name is attached to the article even though all they had no part in writing it and made no changes to the press release.

On the spelling front. There have been times where I've had to rush something out and there have been typos - more often than not the typos are replicated in the articles thus proving nobody actually edits.

If you talk to anyone in the publicity business, they will tell you that a very high percentage of newspaper content is press releases replicated word for word. In fact, its got to the stage whereby its difficult to get an article printed on something unless a fully written story that can be cut and pasted is given in the press release.
 
According to Terry Dolan - the language expert, we speak Hiberno English, not 'queens english'. I think that the tacit acceptance of the american way of spelling words is a symptom of the waning of our own particular dialect. The accent thing is where we can see local dialects/accents being replaced by the one 'national' accent, no regional variations, no matter the reason why this may be so (to avoid a rant on social class etc), I just think it is a little sad that our language is perhaps becoming a little more internationalised or bland and that ways of saying things or spelling things becomes the same across the board.

I expect better of our newspapers than to spell things the American way.

BTW (see it gets us all!!) in the Irishmans Diary today, quiet was spelt quite, this is a very common one and I can't blame the americans!
 
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