My editing pet peeve - what's yours?

All three of those are at the top of my list. Misplaced prepositions are right up there, along with their/its and who/which.

 

I hate the word "on" when used with a day or date.

Tuesday is not a coffee table to put something "on."

The Bumblefucks lost 49-7 to the Big Boogers in the first conference game of the year Friday at Bumblefuck Stadium.

But I see your point about "Joe Smith Tuesday" and that's when a simple rewrite can help.

 

That's the one I can't break, no matter how hard I try. See.

As for mine, they're your/you're and its/it's.

 

I'll add something that I hate about journalism style: The long sentences some writers (I'm included in that number) end up writing in lede grafs in an effort to get a shit load of information into one sentence.

 

Don't forget plated.

 

Basketball, the difference between nouns and adjectives. I hate this. Hate it.

Joel Hammond went 9-of-9 from the field on his way to 24 points and the NBA Finals MVP award in leading the Cavaliers past Phoenix in Game 7.

LeBron James, once again playing second fiddle to Hammond, made only 1 of 9 shots, but hit 14 of 15 free throws to back Hammond.

NOT

LeBron James, once again playing second fiddle to Hammond, made only 1-of-9 shots, but hit 14-of-15 free throws ....

 

We do 1 of 9 from the floor, but 1-of-9 shooting.

 

No they're not. What kind of shots? 1-of-9 shots? That doesn't make any sense. 1-of-9 shooting, on the other hand, is correct.

 

Those ledes where the score is anywhere below the third graf. The AP optional for Davidson-Georgetown drags on and finally lists the score at the bottom of the fourth graph.

There's an SE at one of the small dailies in my current area that waited until the sixth graf to put his score in a high school gamer. Sadder still, he actually supervises a staff.

Quality? Only if it comes insanely cheap in this area ... :

 

Basic grammatical errors, especially it's/its.

 

I feel your pain. One of these days I'm going to lose it when I get a stupid caption from the copy desk.

My "favorites" are when it's a file photo and someone decides it's important to describe when and where it was taken even though that has no relevance to the story. We also once had a tryout write a "while Person X looks on" in a caption.

 

It could be poor-quality.