Papercuts!
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| #1 Posted on 29.1.02 0956.20 Reposted on: 29.1.09 0959.11 | It's "PIQUED people's interest" not "PEAKED peoples interest!"
I've seen this THREE TIMES in THREE WEEKS on three different wrestling sites. Most recently was last night's Torch Raw Real-Time Coverage. The words are entirely different and mean completely different things! Not to mention the latter example isn't even correct. Sheesh!
Seriously, is it THAT difficult to learn to spell correctly or maybe use a dictionary?
Sorry. I had to blow up about this somewhere...this also serves to remind me why I don't read their columns on a regular basis.
Jason Baldwin Head Writer, 4-Color Review And the guy behind PAPER CUTS! TRUTHFUL comic book commentary Every Thursday, only at 4-Color Review http://4colorreview.com | Promote this thread! |  | CRZ
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| #2 Posted on 29.1.02 1005.05 Reposted on: 29.1.09 1029.02 | Originally posted by Papercuts!
| Seriously, is it THAT difficult to learn to spell correctly or maybe use a dictionary? |
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have an "Obvious Question of the Day" award winner!
See also: its/it's, your/you're
CRZ Visit [slash] wrestling | Papercuts!
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| #3 Posted on 29.1.02 1012.59 Reposted on: 29.1.09 1029.03 | Originally posted by CRZ
| Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have an "Obvious Question of the Day" award winner! |
If it seems I'm so obsessive about all of this, I apologize. It has a little something to do with my field of employ and what I went to college for.
I have a standing bet with my better half that she cannot find a "marquee" sign outside a fast food joint that is grammatically correct in every way. If she can find one, she gets $100.
This is a good example of what I'm talking about:
(image removed)
We've had this bet for four years.
She calls me "Grammar Nazi."
Jason Baldwin Head Writer, 4-Color Review And the guy behind PAPER CUTS! TRUTHFUL comic book commentary Every Thursday, only at 4-Color Review http://4colorreview.com | CRZ
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| #4 Posted on 29.1.02 1025.00 Reposted on: 29.1.09 1029.11 | Spelling aside, how is "Now hiring all shits" grammatically incorrect? ;-)
CRZ Visit [slash] wrestling | Jaguar
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| #5 Posted on 29.1.02 1027.49 Reposted on: 29.1.09 1029.12 | I just laughed way too much over that.
Thanks, Papercuts!
-Jag | pieman
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| #6 Posted on 29.1.02 1028.50 Reposted on: 29.1.09 1029.15 | One of my favorites is the signs on people's houses announcing who lives there.
It should be "The Martins" and it always says "The Martin's"
The Martin's what? The Martin's house? The Martin's dog?
He's Rolie Polie Olie - and in his world of curves and curls, he's the swellest kid around. | Papercuts!
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| #7 Posted on 29.1.02 1032.34 Reposted on: 29.1.09 1059.01 | Originally posted by CRZ
| Spelling aside, how is "Now hiring all shits" grammatically incorrect? |
It's all in the punctuation, my good man (and my "grammatically incorrect" bet includes spelling, too.) 
I guess I should have been more clear.
Anyway, it should read "Now hiringall shifts."
Jason Baldwin Head Writer, 4-Color Review And the guy behind PAPER CUTS! TRUTHFUL comic book commentary Every Thursday, only at 4-Color Review http://4colorreview.com
(edited by Papercuts! on 29.1.02 0833) | MoeGates
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| #8 Posted on 29.1.02 1512.26 Reposted on: 29.1.09 1520.02 | I have to say as a columnist, it's the editor's fault. No, seriously. I'm as much of proofreading hawk as you are (it's one of my main functions at work where we have to publish, like, real stuff), but I just can't do my own stuff. In fact, I have yet to meet a proofreader that can flawlessly proofread their own stuff. Since (ask the)Rick isn't getting paid anymore, after I found some obvious idiot mistakes in my first few columns, I decided to get folks at work to proofread for me. But if you're doing a show recap and have to get it up that night, unless you've got a really great girlfriend, the editor is the one who is going to have to do a quick, thorough job of proofreading. And I guess they either a) don't or b) suck at proofreading.
Anyway, my point is that every writer makes grammatical mistakes. There isn't an excuse for it, but it happens. And there isn't a publishing medium I can think of where proofreading is the writer's responsibility. Internet writing shouldn't be the exception.
Moe
Farooq is the man so hit your knees and start praying! | Scotsman
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| #9 Posted on 29.1.02 1558.11 Reposted on: 29.1.09 1559.11 | Being someone who makes a million grammatical errors per fucking column....I'd say unless it gets to the point where people don't understand what I'm actually saying, then I won't go back and proof-read it and correct every single mistake, yada yada. Having to shoot off about 100 letters per day to lawyers or governments as my day job and having to make sure they're 100% grammatically correct.....it's nice to write a column where the odd spelling mistake, or putting an apostrophe in the wrong place or something won't matter.
Only thing I do before I would submit it is run it by my housemates first, who'd give it a once-over and if they had no problems understanding it, tell me to post it.
Scotsman.
| Papercuts!
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| #10 Posted on 29.1.02 1600.52 Reposted on: 29.1.09 1603.20 | Originally posted by MoeGates
| I have to say as a columnist, it's the editor's fault. |
Now you're getting to my unstated, snide little point. And keep in mind I'm a columnist, too (and I have been one for almost 10 years now -- counting both on and offline experiences.)
If places like The Torch and whatnot want to be taken seriously -- and yes, I realize EVERYONE makes mistakes, I do it quite often in my columns -- they need to quit making bush league mistakes like this.
"Our writers don't have an editor" winds up being the "excuse" for things more often than not -- look at the Scotsman fiasco. The guys that run the Smarks claim that they wouldn't have run his stuff (and I'm not saying I agree or disagree with what he said or did, either) but the writers are responsible for editing and posting their own stuff.
WTF do you expect when you give people a free pass, you know? You get what you pay for in that case and if you run a site that uses such a practice, you have no one to blame but yourself because eventually, you're going to wind up with a huge mess on your hands.
So the quick answer to "we don't have an editor" should be "well, get one, pally."
There's a process in place that's been in place at professional publications for years that works. Sure, you don't need a license to publish a magazine or write an article, but when you publish, you have a responsibility to your readers.
The advent of the internet has let thousands of people not familiar with the publishing process -- for example, letting at least six sets of eyes see a story before it goes to print -- bypass all of that and slap stuff onto a page. And they think they're a "journalist" or a "columnist." Of course, they're shocked and mortified when no one takes them seriously in the slightest.
If you're going to put something out there -- anything -- for public consumption and consider it an article or a column or whatever, don't put it out there until at LEAST someone else has looked at it. You have a responsibility to yourself to do that.
So what's my point in all of this? Um...oh yeah! Credibility is like virginity. Once you lose it, you'll never get it back. One of the ways to maintain said credibility in "print" is to rite inglush gd and stuf
| But if you're doing a show recap and have to get it up that night, unless you've got a really great girlfriend |
Must...resist...making...obvious...joke...
Jason Baldwin Head Writer, 4-Color Review And the guy behind PAPER CUTS! TRUTHFUL comic book commentary Every Thursday, only at 4-Color Review http://4colorreview.com | El Den
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| #11 Posted on 31.1.02 1112.18 Reposted on: 31.1.09 1129.03 | >>There's a process in place that's been in place...<<
That is redundant. Please fix it in your next revision. 
Denny | odessasteps
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| #12 Posted on 31.1.02 1725.38 Reposted on: 31.1.09 1728.15 | Relevant Anecdote:
When sending my SD! report to CRZ late Tuesday/early Wednesday, I quickly read through it and sent it through spellcheck. When everything looked okay, I sent it off.
Two minutes later, I get an IM that says, "A local woman signs the national anthem?"
D'oh!
Non-relevant Anecdote:
We actually used to purposely put little mistakes in our stories to see if our editor would catch them. Most of the time he did, but we were greatly amused if something really asinine made it through.
Of course, when I was an editor, I didn't think it was as funny. :>
Get out of the garden, baby. You'll catch your death in the fog. Young girls, they call them The Diamond Dogs. | El Den
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| #13 Posted on 1.2.02 0358.58 Reposted on: 1.2.09 0359.03 | My worst habit is leaving little notes all over my column while I'm writing it (points I need to make, etc.). Occasionally, I forget to delete one or two of them. I'll write up a Circa about some old timer, and right at the bottom there'll be a big ol' note to self, like "DISCUSS RIKIDOZAN" or "FOREIGN OBJECTS". More than a couple of those have made it to publication, confusing the hell out of readers.
More than usual, I mean.
Denny | Papercuts!
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| #14 Posted on 1.2.02 0919.30 Reposted on: 1.2.09 0929.17 | Originally posted by odessasteps Non-relevant Anecdote:
We actually used to purposely put little mistakes in our stories to see if our editor would catch them. Most of the time he did, but we were greatly amused if something really asinine made it through.
Of course, when I was an editor, I didn't think it was as funny
I had a similar experience when my run as editor expired on my college paper and I didn't particularly like the new editor -- and it's a long story as to why, needless to say she took the fact that he had the job I wanted and rubbed it in my face on a daily basis. So I figured "I'll fix her" and started dropping one F-Bomb into every column I wrote for her section. I figured sooner or later one would slip through and she'd get her chops busted big time. Sure enough, one did get through.
That was one happy day for me. 
Of course, after the advisor chewed the editor out, she sat me down to talk.
"I'm sensing you have some issues with the editor..."
Gee, what was your first clue?
However, my favorite slip-up came from a dummy cutline -- and thankfully, it wasn't my doing. Anyway, our sports editor was doing a story on a local martial arts team. He wrote a fake cutline under the photo in order to indicate how much space he needed until he got the proper identification.
The cutline read "Some dude (left) kicks the crap out of some other dude (right)." He forgot to change it -- our proofers didn't even bother to look at it -- and it went straight to press. Best cutline ever.
Jason Baldwin Head Writer, 4-Color Review And the guy behind PAPER CUTS! TRUTHFUL comic book commentary Every Thursday, only at 4-Color Review http://4colorreview.com | odessasteps
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| #15 Posted on 1.2.02 1824.31 Reposted on: 1.2.09 1829.05 | Under the heading of "I can't believe this:"
You know you get so focused in the minutae you miss the big picture.
When I was an undergrad working on the newspaper (and mind you, it was a paid circulation college paper, so we had actual people to answer to), we actually spelled incorrectly a word in the above the fold headline. ARGH!
I don't think I personally did anything that egregious. That I can remember.
Read Odessa Steps Magazine. In print or on the net. www.odessasteps.com | Tragic1
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| #16 Posted on 3.2.02 2210.13 Reposted on: 3.2.09 2210.40 | My personal spelling peeve is when people spell wrestler's names incorrectly. Despite the fact that every time a wrestler comes out for a match, a huge piece of chyron with their name on it shows up. On Smackdown is takes up have the screen! But we still get references to "Brett Heart", "Curt Angle" and "Rick Flair". Read the F'N chyron people!
My other complaint is the constant waist/waste mix-up. A waist is the part of the body a belt goes around. Waste is another word for garbage and/or excrement. Everytime I see 'so and so has the title around his waste' my first reaction is 'Ew.' | Papercuts!
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| #17 Posted on 4.2.02 0845.48 Reposted on: 4.2.09 0859.01 | Originally posted by odessasteps (and mind you, it was a paid circulation college paper, so we had actual people to answer to)
Actually, my college paper worked the same way. Editors were even paid paid, on average, $1500 a semester.
Of course, my favorite "above the fold screwup" is the famous "Pubic Outcry" headline they show everyone in copyediting class. | odessasteps
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| #18 Posted on 4.2.02 1648.48 Reposted on: 4.2.09 1658.02 | Back in ye old days, not only were the editors paid (I think something around $100 a week or bi-weekly), but so were the reporters ($25 a story and $5 a brief).
I made barely more in one of my freelance jobs. :> | TheBucsFan
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| #19 Posted on 4.2.02 1918.22 Reposted on: 4.2.09 1929.01 | As a journalist (or a student of journalism, I should say), this bothers me too. However, I'm willing to excuse little things on the internet because I know I make tons of mistakes due to my rushing. I don't want to take time to check over things like I would a newspaper article. I'm sure you can find several mistakes in this post alone.
On signs and stuff, however, there is no excuse. | who__lame
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| #20 Posted on 5.2.02 0739.35 Reposted on: 5.2.09 0745.51 | Please take the time to visit the Observer's site. If you can manage to get even quarterway through a Melzer article, I will consider you a sado-machosist(sp?) freak.
Now go and flame HIM and leave the Torch guys alone. At least they spell-check. And format paragraphs. And write non-running sentences. ;-) |
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