We can't ignore typos in a blog post by a sub-editor, can we?

A few days ago I came across a terrific blog post titled "A day in the life of a sub-editor". Everything written in the piece spoke to me because I've been a deskman all my life. But... there were two horrible typos that ruined the article for me. So I wrote to the commissioning editor of The Walkley Foundation, the Australian organisation that publishes the blog:

Hello Clare,

This is Ramesh Prabhu, professor of journalism at a media college in Bangalore, India.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this "excerpt" from Charles Purcell's diary.

​I was a deskman for many years with newspapers in India and Dubai, so I get where he's coming from.

May I point out a couple of typos, though?

In the first paragraph​, there's this line: "...educate them into the correct use of 'myriad'."

Shouldn't that be "...educate them on the correct use of 'myriad'"?

Of course, I understand "...educate them into..." may be a colloquialism in your part of the world. But in the second paragraph there is surely a typo:

"Passenger accuses me of vandalism, until I point at that I am, in fact, a sub-editor..."

That should be "Passenger accuses me of vandalism, until I point out that I am, in fact, a sub-editor..."

Regards,

Ramesh

***
Not too long afterwards, I received this e-mail from Clare:

Hi Ramesh,

Thank you for your email, it’s wonderful to know we have a reader in Bangalore. Glad you enjoyed the piece, and thank you for pointing out the typos – I knew it was only a matter of time before someone spotted something!

We’ve corrected those now.

Thanks again,

Clare Fletcher

Program Manager
The Walkley Foundation for Journalism
Commissioning Editor
The Walkley Magazine
T: +612 9333 0925 | M: +61432 616 810 | E: clare.fletcher@walkleys.com  |  www.walkleys.com

***
Now I can happily recommend "A day in the life of a sub-editor" to everyone. Read it here.

RE CORRECTING TYPOS, ALSO READ:

• An e-mail interaction with author Dinty Moore — Why American writer Dinty Moore is all praise for Indian speakers and writers of English

• An e-mail interaction with The New York Times — In 8 minutes, a response from The New York Times to my e-mail pointing out a typo in a headline

• An e-mail interaction with author Mardy Grothe —  It all depends on the telling, sure. But surely who does the telling matters?

Why American writer Dinty Moore is all praise for Indian speakers and writers of English

I have been reading an interesting and highly original book (pictured) by author, editor, and writing coach Dinty Moore.

Moore writes with humour and with intelligence. Here's the first paragraph from the introduction:

"Perhaps you are standing in the bookstore, scanning this introductory chapter, wondering just what sort of book you have in hand. You are a good-looking person whose minor flaws seem to only accentuate your considerable charm. You are intelligent. And immune to flattery."

So yes, Moore writes with humour and with intelligence. But we all make mistakes and I thought Moore made one on Page 18 in a four-page essay dedicated to teaching readers how to use an "em dash". So I wrote an e-mail to him on Sunday night.

Subject: A question regarding the em dash as used in your book, "Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy"

Hello Dinty,

This is Ramesh Prabhu in Bangalore, India.

I am a good-looking person whose minor flaws seem to only accentuate my considerable charm. I am intelligent. And immune to flattery.

In other words, I have bought a copy of your book.

Now that I have got that out of the way, let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

On Page 18 of your book, in the essay regarding Cheryl Strayed's letter to you about her love affair with the em dash, you give us this example of how to use this particular punctuation mark:

I have three goals for my day—measure an "n" and an "m", memorize the width of the two letters, and look up "obsessive disorders" on Wikipedia.

My understanding is that a colon, not a dash (em or en) should be used to introduce a list. So don't you think you should have used a colon instead of the em dash in that sentence?

I have three goals for my day: measure an "n" and an "m", memorize the width of the two letters, and look up "obsessive disorders" on Wikipedia.

I am a journalist turned journalism professor. I have been teaching journalism since April 2003 at a media college in Bangalore. My students and I hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers,

Ramesh 

And here's Moore's reply: 

Subject: Re: A question regarding the em dash as used in your book, "Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy"

 

Ramesh

I think you are correct.  I also think that, in general, Indian speakers and writers of English are far more precise and correct than the British are nowadays.  And for sure, you are better at this than we Americans, who tend to be immensely sloppy, informal, and inconsistent. Thanks to you and your students for the correction.

Dinty

***

ALSO READ:

An e-mail interaction with The New York Times — In 8 minutes, a response from The New York Times to my e-mail pointing out a typo in a headline

An e-mail interaction with author Mardy Grothe —  It all depends on the telling, sure. But surely who does the telling matters?

 

The world's worst typos – in pictures

From The Guardian: "A new book details the crime de la creme of typographical errors, from hotel brochures advertising a 'French widow in every bedroom' to political banners declaring President Obama's 'crisis of competnce'. Here are some of the finest."

Early in 2010, Gregorio Iniguez, managing director of the Chilean Mint, was sacked after he authorised the production of 1.5m 50-peso coins that spelled the country's name 'C-H-I-I-E'. By the time he was kicked out it was too late; the coins remain in circulation to this day.

You can take a look at some of the other typos described in the book here. (Thank you for the tip-off, Faye D'Souza.)

• Also read: "Headline headaches and other bloopers".

Are subs a disappearing breed? Is that why there are so many typos in our newspapers? Also: How do Times group journalists deal with Medianet?

Here's Meenal Baghel, the founder and editor in chief of the Mirror (Mumbai Mirror, Bangalore Mirror, etc.), responding to a question on why the Mirror has a number of typos:

I think there is a very real problem with journalism today, and it’s not only limited to Mirror. The problem is that the deskie is a disappearing breed. And it’s going to be a big challenge over the next few years. Also, there are very real problems we are facing, and these are going to change the profession drastically. It’s so rare to find people who want to come into journalism because they want to be journalists. For example, when you ask people, ‘Who edited this copy?’. Invariably the response will be: ‘I looked at it/I glanced at it/I skimmed through it.’

And here's the Q&A concerning Medianet:

Being a hard-edged journalist, how do you reconcile with something like Medianet?
That’s easy, because we don’t have Medianet in Mirror.


But it’s there in your group.
It doesn’t affect my life, so I don’t care about it.


You aren’t asked to carry plugs?
No. And it’s one of the things that has pleasantly surprised me. They have maintained the Chinese wall from the start.


They have left you alone?
Yes. And there’s another reason. Mirror is a small paper in the group, so it’s not necessarily the focus. We are a small cog in comparison.


Have you ever been asked to drop a story?
(Pauses) Not drop a story. I think what one learns over a period of time is that you have to pick your battles. I’ll give you an example: If there’s an entertainment story which is coming right ahead of the Filmfare awards, where somebody is going to be performing, and I have a damaging story on that person, would I delay it by a few days? Yes, I would.

• Read the full interview here: "Our battle is to out-think TOI: Meenal Baghel". (Ignore the PR-ish elements in the standfirst.)

• Thank you for the alert, Nilofer D'Souza. 

• Also read: "Why subs, or copy editors, are the lifeblood of a news organisation".

What our newspapers can learn from The New York Times

How often do we find grammatically incorrect sentences, misspelled words, and wrongly used punctuation marks in our newspapers?

How often do we readers bother to complain?

And how often do our newspapers respond to readers' complaints?

Perhaps our dailies should study how seriously The New York Times, one of the world's greatest newspapers, views errors. And, perhaps, we readers should also emulate NYT readers and take our newspapers to task when necessary.

These thoughts came to mind on reading a recent "After Deadline" blog post on the NYT website by Philip B. Corbett, the associate managing editor for standards, who is also in charge of the newspaper's style manual. Titled The Reader's Lament and based on a memo Corbett received from a colleague who oversees the NYT's copy desks, this post is, from an Indian newspaper's viewpoint, an extraordinary mea culpa.

Look at the opening salvo:

Times readers expect nothing but the best in our writing and editing. Too often, they’re disappointed.

We then get to sample some complaints from irate readers:

“As a 35-year subscriber to The Times, I continue to be disappointed in the number of typos that have become chronic and, sorry to say, expected on a daily basis,” one reader wrote recently. “Where are the proofreaders and editors? Where are the standards for punctuation and grammar? The Times used to be the gold standard.”

The memo continues with a plausible explanation for the increase in errors:

This era of news publishing has put a greater emphasis on speed, across multiple formats and platforms. Thanks to blogging and continuous updates, more people in the newsroom find themselves in the role of publishing live material. The same forces have increased the workload and distractions faced by reporters, backfield editors, copy editors and producers.

There is also an explanation of the newspaper's working guidelines:

Our policy is for every article to get at least two reads, preferably one of them by an experienced copy editor, before publication. And then you should check your work again, or have someone else check it.

The memo then provides "some proofreading tips culled from years of journalism tip sheets" and offers this succinct conclusion:

Last of all, think of our readers — and care what they think of us.

Both journalists and media students (and, of course, newspaper readers) will benefit greatly from reading this post in its entirety: "The Reader's Lament".

• Thank you, Rohita Rambabu, for alerting me to this post.

• "After Deadline" offers a highly instructive contemplation of issues regarding "grammar, usage and style encountered by writers and editors of The Times". Want to know when to use "who" and when to use "whom"? Check out "Too Many Whoms." Want to be cheered by some sparkling writing? Read "Bright Passages". Unsure of when to use commas? This post has some helpful advice: "Commas? Sure, throw a few in".