157 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
157 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
topics
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about-us
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style-book
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simon-heffers-style-notes
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4176464
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-----
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# Style notes 12: Jan 5 2009
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3:38PM GMT 05 Jan 2009
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Dear Colleagues
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Please forgive the suspension of normal service over the Christmas holidays.
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There has, however, been no suspension of errors.
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It is becoming habitual - rather too habitual - for us to state apparent facts
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or to make assertions without any attribution. If we are reporting a fact we
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need to say where we have got that fact from: not least because, after further
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investigation, it sometimes turns out not to be a fact at all. For example: we
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very nearly carried an assertion that 90 per cent of people in this country
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would be obese by 2050 without saying what our grounds were for making the
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claim: it turned out to be a Department of Health report that we had noticed
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several days earlier, but with which many of our readers may not be familiar.
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But we also make many claims, particularly on our website, in news stories for
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which no source is attributed. If we wish to be taken seriously we must always
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provide attribution.
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We also nearly ran a story in which we referred to "The Iraqi capital", which
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we decided not to name as Baghdad. I am all for not patronising our readers
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with phrases such as "the writer Charles Dickens", and I am sure they all know
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what the Iraqi capital is. But common sense and good practice mean that we
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must specify its name at the first mention: we can call it "the Iraqi capital"
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at a subsequent mention. Similarly, we published an article that included
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reference to "smoke and debris" in a building without ever mentioning that
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there had been a fire.
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Apparently one or two of you are under the impression that the noun "soldier"
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can be used "generically" to describe any member of the Armed Forces. It most
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certainly cannot. It is to be used only to describe a member of the Army. It
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is not (and I should have hoped this was obvious) to be used to describe
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members of the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force or Royal Marines.
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Our readers remain vigilant and are often displeased when they spot a
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solecism. We badly need our readers and it remains a good idea to encourage
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them to continue to buy our newspaper. We ran the appalling phrase
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"rottweilers are a powerful breed with well strong genetic guarding
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instincts". It provoked the response from a customer that "I don't expect to
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read teenage gangspeak in a Telegraph article innit". Others took it less
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well.
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Recycling is not, whatever you may think, a noun: it is a participle. Material
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that is sent for recycling is just that: it is not to be labelled "recycling".
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Flue is not a seasonal disease; it is part of a chimney. A commissioner and a
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commissionaire do remarkably different jobs. The words "may" and "might" are
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not interchangeable: the style book will explain the difference if you should
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like to consult it. We do not use a capital letter after a colon; a colon does
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not end a sentence. Partly and partially do not have the same meaning. Mammoth
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is not spelt "mamouth". It is tabloid to label people as "mother" or
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"grandfather" unless the relationship is directly relevant to the story: so
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"mother saves her baby from drowning" is fine, but "grandfather beaten up and
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robbed" is not. It is also tabloid to put people's occupations or positions
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before their names rather than afterwards: so it is always "Gordon Brown, the
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Prime Minister", never "Prime Minister Gordon Brown". These last two points
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are clearly detailed in the style guide, and provide yet more exciting reasons
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for reading it.
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Finally, be careful to check any assumptions about "facts". We reported
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recently that Sri Lankan security forces had attacked a "rebel city" that
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housed the administrative headquarters of the Tamil Tigers. As a reader who
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had recently visited the "city" pointed out, it is in fact smaller than most
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English villages.
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Yours sincerely
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Simon Heffer
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Associate Editor
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The Daily Telegraph
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/about-us/style-book/simon-heffers-style-
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notes/4176464/Style-notes-12-Jan-5-2009.html
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Telegraph
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## [Simon Heffer's Style Notes][6]
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[What are these?][2]
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Share:
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* [ ][1]
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* [ ][3]
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* [Tweet][5]
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* Advertisement
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