Despite the plethora of copy editors ready to fix the mistakes made by journalists, I still tend to find errors all over, in newspapers, magazines, and also online. I'm not really bothered by it, as most of the time I can figure out what should be written, and I know that I make mistakes as well, so when I see others making mistakes, the desire to pour gasoline over them, light them on fire, and toss them in front of an oncoming train does not arise within me. Quite the opposite actually.
For example, the other day I was reading 'evo' magazine and I stumbled upon an error. In the print, it said: "Well, nearly every new car now has throttle-by-wire, and gears-by-wire are in any modern two-pedal transmission." After reading this line about 14 times (literally) it finally made sense but the fact of the matter is that I shouldn't have to read the same line 14 times in order to makes sense of it. Once in class I heard a teacher say 'you should never make your readers sweat' or something along those lines, and this passage does not follow that rule.
Let's take a quick lance at the world of online media, shall we? Here is an example of a possible error in word placement. In an article on the Edmonton Journal website, the author wrote "Over the last two years, the 41-year-old Torontonian has driven more than 35,000 km and hopes to next take the thing to Argentina." I am not entirely fond of the placement of the word 'next.' I think it would be better served at the very end (and hopes to take the thing to Argentina next).
Examples show up all the time in all forms of media. People are only human and mistakes are natural, and while we can try all we want to eliminate them, there will always be a few that slip through our fingers and find their way onto print.
First picture taken from Lisisoft website. (http://www.lisisoft.com/free-download-version/45842-criminal-background-check-detective.html)
Second picture taken by Steven Wagers. Picture of evo magazine. Editor Nick Trott.
I really respect your statement, “I'm not really bothered by it, as most of the time I can figure out what should be written, and I know that I make mistakes as well, so when I see others making mistakes, the desire to pour gasoline over them, light them on fire, and toss them in front of an oncoming train does not arise within me. Quite the opposite actually.” Thank you for being very candid (and funny) in conveying what many readers and journalists often forget, that every one makes mistakes and that it doesn’t have to be so appalling and outrageous.
ReplyDeleteYou also made a really good point that no reader should have to read a line 14 times in order to comprehend the point. I think that is how writers lose readers, especially online because they can so easily find something else to read with just a few clicks.
Great blog post!
I found one error, however:
I think you forgot the “g” in glance in the sentence: “Let's take a quick lance at the world of online media, shall we?”
Otherwise, very good assertions! I enjoyed reading your blog post!