Freelance Unbound

Via Soilman comes an example of a news item from the Telegraph that fails to tell the reader almost everything they need to know in order to make sense of the story. It’s impossible to pull out any extracts from the story that make any real sense. Go and have a look and see if [...]

Normally, the Radio Times is the most rigorously proofread magazine on the newsstand, so it’s a shame that this bit of sloppiness slipped into print. From Stuart Maconie’s “Maconie’s People” column of 3-9 July 2010 comes this: Forget what they say about James Brown. Damon Albarn is surely the hardest working man in showbiz? Whether [...]

Nine-year-old Anna Carnochan has been in the news today, taking the prime minister to task over a potential tax on toys. She wasn’t happy with his reply, it seems, and is pursuing the matter with the tenacity of a young Jeremy Paxman. Apparently Anna “wants to be a news reporter” when she’s older. She’s currently [...]

Via the ever-dependable Soilman comes news that an Oxford academic has set up a prize for the most inaccurate reporting of a piece of academic work. It sounds like a one-off joke – but the nominations process is outlined comprehensively enough, so it might take off. The project is the brainchild of Dorothy Bishop, a [...]

It seems Twitter users can’t actually spell “Israel” – as the top six trending topic worldwide right now demonstrates. Perhaps the mainstream media has nothing to fear after all… [UPDATE: Oh, all right – it's one way of spelling it. But not the US or UK English way, which is interesting in itself...]

Just how bad can journalism student assessment work be, in terms of spelling, grammar, punctuation and general accuracy? The answer: pretty bad. Let’s have a look at some of the most common (certainly the most noticeable) problems with student assessment work this year. Apostrophes No student, absolutely none, has the remotest clue how to use [...]

From early this month (because it’s been knocking around the house and I’ve only just got around to glancing at it before I put it in the recycling bin) – here’s the Guardian Money report on uSwitch’s annual broadband satisfaction survey. What’s wrong with this piece of simple reportage? It couldn’t be simpler, really. In [...]

“Faze”: “to cause to be disturbed or disconcerted”. As in: the journalism lecturer was seldom fazed by the constant mis-spellings and poor grammar of his students. “Phase”: “a stage in a process of change or development”. As in: she wanted to work in the media, but luckily it was just a phase she was going through. This pairing can be a bit of a puzzle, but don’t be fazed. [...]

This one’s aimed at sub-editors again – or whoever overruled the sub who may have objected to this dreadful headline in today’s Metro. Drug death student took meow meow Well – that’s clear enough, surely? Some hard-partying student took the narcotic du jour and it killed her. Make it illegal quickly and with little rational [...]

Spotted twice yesterday in papers that should know better – two stories baring the writer’s ignorance of simple English. The London Standard story This isn’t just a decline … it’s a Marks and Spencer decline noted: The store front is fading and a little grotty. The shop sign seems left over from the Fifties, baring [...]