155 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
155 lines
4.9 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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5241448
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-----
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# Style notes 20: April 28 2009
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9:32AM BST 29 Apr 2009
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Dear Colleagues
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We have been rather prone to factual errors since my last notes: here are some
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examples. We said Snowdon was the second highest mountain in Britain when in
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fact it is the 57th highest (it is the highest in Wales). We referred to the
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Inland Revenue when it has been HM Revenue and Customs since April 2005. We
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said that no-one had faced charges as a result of the Hillsborough disaster in
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1989 when in fact two police officers were charged with manslaughter. We never
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seem to be able to get the name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
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Saints correct: it is thus. We confused ancestors with descendants. There have
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been several incidences of facts wrong in sports copy, which our readers are
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especially hot on. If you aren't absolutely sure that something is right,
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check it. If you are absolutely sure something is right, check it anyway.
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We are still plagued by homonyms. We called Sir Billy Butlin the "founding
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farther" of the holiday camp. We had heroine for heroin. Somebody was quoted
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as saying "I'm hear to apologise to everyone".
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Occasionally, letters go missing. We wrote of "the pubic-school dominated
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diplomatic service". A house was broken into by "buglars". "Accomodation" was
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bad enough, but it then became "accomadation". President and Mrs Obama were
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reported as having greeted a crow.
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Think of the logic both of syntax and of the use of adjectives. We described
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something as being "more real". Something is either real or it isn't: real is
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an incomparable adjective. We talked of someone "shooting dead rabbits". He
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was in fact shooting rabbits dead: if a rabbit is already dead it probably
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doesn't need to be shot further.
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A vigilant executive removed the word "Smeargate" from copy just before it
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went in the paper. Using the suffix -gate to indicate a scandal of whatever
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proportions was frightfully funny 30 years ago, but is less so now. It is also
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relentlessly tabloid; as is the formula, banned by the style book but
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increasingly ignored, of describing a person by putting his or her job
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description before his or her name. It is not shadow chancellor George Osborne
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or England captain Andrew Strauss; it is George Osborne, the shadow
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chancellor, and Andrew Strauss, the England captain. Writers forgetting this
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cause production journalists endless unnecessary trouble.
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Can we also be careful about the use of words? On a highly topical note, it is
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tautologous to talk of "a global pandemic". The adjective is redundant.
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Phenomena is a plural. Please also read the entry in the style book A-Z about
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the differences between "terror" and "terrorism". We described the ex-senior
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police officer Bob Quick as a "terror chief". He was an anti-terrorism chief.
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The first description is meaningless and wrong. Even if "terror chief" had
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been good English, it would still better be applied to Osama bin Laden rather
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than to a policeman who had devoted much of his career to preventing terrorism
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and the spread of terror.
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It seems that many of the style errors in the paper are in stories based on
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agency copy. The agencies we use do not follow our style book. It is therefore
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crucial that the desk staff or reporters who use these stories ensure that
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they are style compliant before sending them to the subs.
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Could I also remind you that the style book is online on our website, and that
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it is regularly updated? The updates are easily accessible separately. One
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such will be that "Foreign Office", as it is the widely used term for the
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office, is acceptable in copy and in heads rather
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than the official, unwieldy title.
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With best wishes
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Simon Heffer
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Associate Editor
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The Daily Telegraph
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notes/5241448/Style-notes-20-April-28-2009.html
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Telegraph
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## [Simon Heffer's Style Notes][6]
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Share:
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