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Announcing/writing pet peeve

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by sirvaliantbrown, May 19, 2009.

  1. MTM

    MTM Well-Known Member

    I'm with you on this one. There's always a score.

    And what about "young rookie." Unless it's a vet coming over from Japan or the rare 10-year minor leaguer getting the call, all rookies are young.
     
  2. Diabeetus

    Diabeetus Active Member

    The bastardization of the word unbelievable. By far, it's the most annoying thing out there.
     
  3. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    Actually, I think that one -- especially if done a week or two into the season -- is done in jest.
     
  4. Big Buckin' agate_monkey

    Big Buckin' agate_monkey Active Member

    I had a veteran reporter critique a story of mine once. Old-school guy. Reads through my copy, stops on a sentence that included "respectively" and said, "Fuck respectively. You don't need it."

    That's cute and all, but I'm still using the phrase "scoreless draw" in soccer gamers.
     
  5. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    The first and third one doesn't really bother me. The middle one kind of does. I guess I just don't hear/see this stuff as often as you do. It might be an announcer thing -- but they are announcers, so I don't give a crap. I can't remember the last time I've seen something of this sort written in somebody's copy.

    Your Steve Nash example would never even dawn on me to put in a story. Your Boston Celtics example I would frame as "The Celtics have won 15 of their past 16, with their lone loss during that stretch coming against the lowly Thunder." Or something like that. It would never dawn on me to frame it in terms of what "would have" happened.
     
  6. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    Sometimes, you need respectively. Or you need to rewrite your sentence so that it makes sense. One or the other. I typically vote for Option B.
     
  7. Mr. Moddy, I will avoid "that is all" in your presence from now on.

    An explanation/half-defence: "That is all" is how folks of my generation (and others? I don't know) sometimes end statements we know are trivial. It means, essentially, "I have concluded my trivial rant. Please proceed with your lives. Thank you for humoring me by reading the above six sentences." It does not mean to imply complete and total finishedness with anything related to the subject of the trivial rant.

    Nonetheless, I will happily strive to avoid future Modwrath by ending trivial rants with another phrase.

    That is all.


    (That was a joke, that time.)
     
  8. It's much more of an announcer thing than a writer thing, no doubt.
     
  9. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    I'm probably so de-sensitized to announcer-speak by now that I can't bring myself to care too earnestly about the havoc they tend to wreak with the English language.

    EDIT: Speaking of pet peeves ... "wreak" havoc, not "wreck" havoc. Oops.
     
  10. SoCalDude

    SoCalDude Active Member

    I'm continually badgering our youngsters about the "in the game" phrase. Jones got three hits in the game. If he got them during batting practice, we wouldn't give a shit. Of course he got them in the game.
    Don't write that!!!
     
  11. KJIM

    KJIM Well-Known Member

    I'll third "scoreless tie" and add anything with "we" in it, even when uttered by the home team's broadcast crew.

    My college team got a new color guy this year. Former player, of course, and he was just so homer I could barely handle it. I get that that's his job, but come on. Spice it up with a little objectivity.

    "We need to score here." "We just didn't protect our quarterback." "We just have to stop this guy!"

    My God, man, you graduated ages ago. You're no more expected to protect the QB than I am.

    The worst was when he'd yell and scream so loudly I couldn't hear the play-by-play. And that happened more than once.
     
  12. I Digress

    I Digress Guest

    That is all......hmm, wasn't the world supposed to end??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
     
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