Draconian demands for front-page editorial excellence

[maxsims]

Joe,

In my very next post, on the subject of prepositions, I will write you.

[maxsims]

You.


Point made?

[Joe Carillo]

I seem to know the point you're driving at, but frankly, I see nothing wrong in your sentence, "In my very next post, on the subject of prepositions, I will write you," even if the preposition "to" is absent before the object "you." The idiom must be different in Australia for this particular usage.

I really won't lose sleep over it, but perhaps we should hear from other English speakers in different countries to resolve this matter.

[renzphotography]

I got something from a leading UK media outfit. Please tell me what you guys make of this title:

"Soldier's troops plea to minister" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8289541.stm

I find the title to be troublesome even after reading the article. Perhaps it should be re-written as "Soldier troops plea to minister" if the word "troop" is to be taken as the verb in the phrase.

[Joe Carillo]

I got something from a leading UK media outfit. Please tell me what you guys make of this title:

"Soldier's troops plea to minister" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8289541.stm

I find the title to be troublesome even after reading the article. Perhaps it should be re-written as "Soldier troops plea to minister" if the word "troop" is to be taken as the verb in the phrase.

I'm perplexed by that usage myself. Perhaps the British has a special meaning for "troop" either as a noun or verb that my Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary has not recorded or taken note of. These are the meanings on record:

troop
Function:noun
Etymology:Middle French trope, troupe company, herd, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English thorp, throp village — more at  THORP
Date:1545

1 a : a group of soldiers  b : a cavalry unit corresponding to an infantry company  c plural   : ARMED FORCES, SOLDIERS
2 : a collection of people or things  : CREW 2
3 : a flock of mammals or birds
4 : the basic organizational unit of Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts under an adult leader

troop
Function:intransitive verb
Date:1565

1 : to move or gather in crowds
2 : to go one's way  : WALK
3 : to spend time together  : ASSOCIATE
4 : to move in large numbers

None of these meanings fits the usage in that headline. Could it be that "troops" in that headline means the verb "presents," as in "Soldier presents plea to minister"? In any case, since that headline got us all scrambling for what it could possibly mean, I would rate it a bad headline. A news headline, after all, should be able to tell the gist of the news story in a jiffy, not make readers scratch their heads for what it means.

So why is this happening even to the news outfit of the supposedly venerable British Broadcasting Corporation?

Part of the answer may lie in the very recent news item below in the Independent of UK entitled "Overseas students are better at English than the British." My attention was called to it by Forum member Hill Roberts in Spain only yesterday.

Here are the first four paragraphs of that story:

British undergraduates are nearly three times more likely to make errors in English than those from overseas, according to new research.

A study of written work produced by final-year students revealed that, on average, they had 52.2 punctuation, grammatical and spelling errors per paper compared with just 18.8 for the international students.

The research is disclosed today by Professor Bernard Lamb, reader in genetics at Imperial College London, and president of the Queen's English Society, after studying the written work produced in the year by his students. It will be published in the society's journal, Quest, next month.

Spelling errors included "flourescence" for "fluorescence", "alot" for "a lot", "seperate" for "separate", "yeild" for "yield", "relevent" for "relevant", "introduications" for "introductions" and "pail vains" for "pale veins".

To read the story in full, click this link to "Overseas students are better at English than the British" now.
   
 

[hill roberts]

Once again, thank  you Joe, for explaining "to" me regarding my query re
preposition "to". I'm so glad I've joined your forum. What a shame it took me
a long time to realise that your forum was already in existence since I joined
over a month ago or so.
 Examples written by some ex-pats  living in the Philippines.

1. Her and her husband were unhappy at the way...
2. Sadly, us Americans do not understand their culture...
3.I'm sorry, but I don't have the patients to shop all day.
4. She was effected by the smell of gas.
5. As far as I'm concern, I couldn't care less.

Have a wonderful weekend with your wife and family!

[maxsims]

"...Part of the answer may lie in the very recent news item below in the Independent of UK entitled "Overseas students are better at English than the British." My attention was called to it by Forum member Hill Roberts in Spain only yesterday..."

This is hardly a new observation.    It is also trite.    The vast majority of adults learning a new language are taught formally; hence they are subjected to the rigours of grammar, much of which has been forgotten (or never learned) by "native" speakers.

[renzphotography]

Another quote from the same British media outfit:

As part of events marking the anniversary, and 200 years since his birth, Baltimore, where Poe died and is buried, will host a double celebration.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8301128.stm

I find it convoluted and I would prefer to untangle and re-write it as follows:

To mark Poe's 200th anniversary a double celebration will be hosted in Baltimore--the place of his birth, death and burial. 

[Joe Carillo]

I think this is one usage where the BBC is absolutely correct: "US President Barack Obama has said he will end the ban on gay people serving openly in the military." That sentence correctly uses the present perfect "has said" instead of the simple past "said" for precisely the opposite of the reason you have suggested. You will recall that the present perfect tense is used for actions that have taken place in the recent past and for actions that may still be on-going or subsisting, as opposed to the simple past tense, which is used to denote actions completed or ended at a specified time in the past.

I would imagine that the sentence in question isn't part of a straight-news story; for if it is, the writer would have routinely used the simple past tense along with the specific time the statement was made, as in "US President Barack Obama said yesterday [that] he will end the ban on gay people serving openly in the military." Instead, that sentence is probably part of a feature or interpretative article where the writer uses the present tense for his own statements, in which case using the present perfect will be called for when reference to a recent past action or event is made, as in this example: "US President Barack Obama has said he will end the ban on gay people serving openly in the military. I think that it's time he delivered on that promise..."

You're absolutely right in saying that the past perfect will only work if the time frame in the past is specified. However, the example you gave for the usage is the opposite of this prescription: "Yesterday, US President Barack Obama has said he will end the ban on gay people serving openly in the military." With the past time-frame specified, that sentence should be in the simple present tense instead: "Yesterday, US President Barack Obama said he will end the ban on gay people serving openly in the military." "US President Barack Obama said yesterday he will end the ban on gay people serving openly in the military."

   

[Joe Carillo]

Another quote from the same British media outfit:

As part of events marking the anniversary, and 200 years since his birth, Baltimore, where Poe died and is buried, will host a double celebration.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8301128.stm

I find it convoluted and I would prefer to untangle and re-write it as follows:

To mark Poe's 200th anniversary a double celebration will be hosted in Baltimore--the place of his birth, death and burial. 

I agree that BBC's construction is rather convoluted and needs untangling. In your reconstruction of the sentence, however, I would suggest putting a comma after the word "anniversary" for greater clarity: "To mark Poe's 200th anniversary, a double celebration will be hosted in Baltimore--the place of his birth, death and burial."

Stylistically, even if I know that a good number of journalists will take issue with me on this, I would also add a serial comma after the word "death": "To mark Poe's 200th anniversary, a double celebration will be hosted in Baltimore--the place of his birth, death, and burial."

[maxsims]

The following quotes are from the on-line advertising placed by the Manila Times School of Journalism.   The underlining and italics are mine.


Broadcast journalism students are provided high-end ratio and television facilities for practical application of broadcast theories and concepts.

Apart from the regular subjects prescribed by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the school offers additional subjects to enhance the students' writing and speaking skills. These included courses on English Proficiency and TV/Radio Special Training.

By far, TMTC is the only school offering training in both fields in just one course. TMTC's journalism is a four-year baccalaureate course effective SY. 2009-2010.

·  Upon submission of the duly accomplished application form, the applicant will be given an entrance exam permit, which contains all the information he/she needs for the exam.
·  Applicants will be notified about the results of the examinations either by phone or mail (depending on the applicant's preference).

To inspire and enlighten, through quality education, training and research, the minds and hearts of people, especially the young, and move them to take divisive and purposive action on critical issues.

Enables the student to gain experience as they study.


Forum members who read the entire advertisement will note that author is in two minds about the serial comma!     

More crtitical is the length of time that this ad has been visible.  Has no one else noticed the errors?   Why not?  Was it not edited by someone on the "professional" staff?

[madgirl09]

I don't find anything wrong with "Soldier's troops plea to the minister" at BBC's headline. I think, there's no verb in the phrase, as "plea" was used as a noun (with modifiers "soldier's troops", and "to the minister", so the whole headline is just a noun phrase.

[madgirl09]

Mr. Ainsworth wanted more "soldier troops" for UK army stationed in Afghanistan. I prefer "soldier's" to be "soldier" though. How many editors are there usually to check on grammar and content of every article? I guess, the editors/copyeditors were also confused with the whole headline, giving "plea" a different meaning, slightly different from the writer's. Isn't this happening sometimes?

But I read the article again, and found one adjective which could shed light to the "unclear reference-- soldier's". The first sentence, "A front-line UK soldier in Afghanistan has told the defence secretary "more troops on the ground" are needed", may give us an idea that the "soldier's" in the headline is this "UK soldier" asking for troops (troops plea) from the minister (to the minister). The complete noun phrase could have been "A UK Soldier's Troops Plea to the Minister"....but I understand, journalism rules usually drops initial determiners (like "a") and obvious nationality adjectives (like UK). Hmmn...

[Joe Carillo]

Maybe this would be better: "Soldier asks minister for more troops." In any case, that baffling headline made all of us scrounge around for a better alternative--proof positive that the BBC headline writer did way, way below a splendid wordsmithing job.