Mistakes are the bane of a journalist's existance. Journalists are taught pretty much from day one, not to make mistakes, but the fact of the matter is: journalists are human, just like everybody else. They make mistakes too. In fact most newspapers and online news sites are littered with mistakes every day.
As a reader most of the time I am able to just brush those mistakes off. It doesn't really bother me as long as I still get what the writer is trying to say. Thats not to say that I think it's ok to make an egregious amount of spelling errors, because that makes the article look less professional. I am more concerned though when these mistakes cause confusion amongst readers. Confusion is perhaps the biggest deterrent when reading.
In an article posted on the Edmonton Journal's website, one can find an error at the very end of one of the stories. The journalist wrote " 'She showed me that any-thing's possible.' " The problem with this is that anything does not have a dash in between 'any' and 'thing.' Most readers though would simply overlook that spelling mistake because they still understand what the author is trying to say. In fact I would have overlooked it as well if I wasn't doing this assignment.
In an article posted on the Edmonton Sun's website, the author does not adhere to CP rules. The author writes: "One in five women said they were extremely unhappy with their sex lives, with 16% complaining about a lack of foreplay and 11% saying their partner orgasms too quickly." The way it should be written is as such: 'One in five women said they were extremely unhappy with their sex lives, with 16 per cent complaining about a lack of foreplay and 11 per cent saying their partner orgasms too quickly.' These kinds of mistakes can make editors very unhappy so it is a good habit to get into to write out the words properly.
I also found a confusing title, in an article on the Edmonton Sun's website. The title for the article is "Oilers Younger, cheaper, bigger." The issue that I have with this article is the use of a capital 'Y' in "younger", but lower-case letters for "cheaper" and "bigger." What this could potentially do is cause a reader to believe there is an Oilers player whose name is actually Younger and that he is cheaper and bigger than someone else. In actuality though, the article is about how the Oilers are now younger, cheaper, and bigger. A simple way that this mistake could have been avoided is simply by putting a colon in the title so it read: "Oilers: Younger, cheaper, bigger." If that had been done it would have been alright that the 'Y' in "Younger" was capitalized.
It is a tall order to be perfect, but that is what is expected of journalists, and they will continue to strive for flawlessness.
Image was taken from http://tiny.cc/nc9hw. From what I gather Ruhani Rabin runs the website.
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