Fewer editors = more grammatical errors

Not earth shattering news I'm sure.

Someone sent a Miami Herald to a grammar teacher, who found 133 errors in one edition. Obviously, some were probably journalism style, but there were others too.


It was a pretty interesting read.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/issues-ideas/v-fullstory/story/1454249.html

 

It was an interesting read. But, Miss Kenzel, give me a break. Sorry, that sentence has an error:

And she should really go through an issue from 20 years ago and see if there are just as many mistakes. I bet it's close. Finally, how long did she take to find all the errors? Someone should have put her on the clock.

-Bitter former copy editor who read one too many letters from whiny English teachers complaining about the newspaper.

 

Nice to know Sports was one of the lesser offenders.

And I don't mind a grammarian taking us to task. Too often we leave misplaced modifiers, dangling participles, etc. alone because we "get" the real meaning.

And don't get me started on commas. Some writers (and editors) think if you sprinkle plenty of them on, like seasoning on food, it automatically makes the product better.

 

All I know is that it helps those of us who give a shit to look good by comparison.

 

Then there are editors who remove them as if commas spread a deadly virus, and there are many writers who don't know when to use them. I'd be a rich man if I had a dollar for every sentence I've read that didn't have the appropriate comma before the coordinating conjunction setting up an independent clause in a sentence.

 

Whiny English teachers? Is there any other kind?

 

Condescending much?

 

One of my former papers once had an English teacher call us to complain about the grammatical mistakes, and said that her students made less mistakes than we did in their essays.

My editor subsequently asked her how many drafts of the essays that the kids wrote and how much time they had to write it. Teacher responded that they did two or three drafts, over a couple of weeks.

My editor then told her that the story she read (a government story) was written on deadline in roughly an hour after the meeting ended. Teacher stammered and said goodbye.

 

I got into an e-mail exchange with an English teacher, who would point out our mistakes 3-4 times a month.
One time we had a head bust, he pointed it out. But he also called it "your April Fools Edition."
So I decided to answer his e-mail. I thanked him for contacting us. I told him that I see his e-mails, I accept and pass along his criticisms. But I don't accept criticism that includes snide comments.
He said he took offense to my "snide comments" reference.
I asked him, "How am I supposed to interpret 'April Fools Edition" if not a snide comment?
That was at least 6 months ago and we haven't heard from him since.