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A blog about English language use, publishing and the media in general – brought to you by a sub-editor (copy editor) on a weekly UK magazine and his former chief sub.
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Recent Posts Tagged With 'raw copy'
I\'m planing a Barking facility
A couple of snippets of raw copy for you today, chosen for the interesting images they bring to mind.First, a simple typo:The proposed regional distribution centre is currently at the planing stage, but Morrisons is confident that the site, just off ...
Terrace house or terraced house?
A couple of style questions for you today:Terrace house (as seen in today's London Lite) or terraced house?Teenage employee (as seen in raw copy) or teenaged employee? ...
A large fruit drink supplier
I noticed that one of our recent stories made reference to a "large fruit drink supplier". Obviously that's a large supplier of fruit drinks, but wouldn't it be nice if the company only supplied large fruit drinks, or drinks made from large fruit? I'...
A shiver down the backbone of business
One of our news stories today included the following quote:News of massive cuts in much-needed road and rail infrastructure projects will send a shiver down the spine of an industry that forms the backbone of business in the countryA shiver down the ...
Subbing for sense
From a truck-related feature that one of my colleagues was subbing today:Only use the air-con for a few minutes to cool the cab. Once you’re on the move, don’t run the air-con if either the doors or windows are open.Er, why would anyone "on the m...
Edible oil tanker operator
Today I subbed a story that mentioned an "edible oil tanker operator". That could be:An operator of oil tankers that are edibleAn edible operator of oil tankersAn operator of tankers of edible oilI presumed it was the last... ...
You say 'teat', I say 'peat'...
Recently I was subbing a news story about a major drugs bust, in which 684kg of cocaine was discovered on a truck headed from Spain to England. The raw copy contained the following paragraph:The drugs were found in plastic bags packed around cash reg...
Typo: lime of communication
This is from recent raw copy:They kept an open lime of communication all the way through the process.What a brilliant fruit-based typo! Obviously, the writer meant "open line of communication".Limes: Now we're talkin' ...
Our taxonomy, a stun gun and PPE
Where I work, the reporters now have an additional task: classifying their news stories according to our website taxonomy.So, for example, if a story was about Mercedes launching a new vehicle, the reporter would select the taxonomy items 'product la...
Eggcorns: power phrasing
In recent copy, one of our reporters wrote:While I have power phrased Mr Wood somewhat, the system's benefits have already been seenEven without the full context, it should be pretty obvious that 'power phrased' is an eggcorn for 'paraphrased'.It was...
Green shoots of recovery
Here's a rather apposite typo or spelling mistake from recent raw copy:However, those looking for green shoots of recovery should be wearyOf course, that final word should be 'wary' – probably. ...
'Boarder crossing'
An amusing typo in recent raw copy:The stop is packed with the kind of facilities that any sane driver and operator would want near one of the major boarder crossings in EuropeWho uses boarder crossings – children travelling back from boarding scho...
Two premises, one premise
From recent raw copy (I've taken out the name of the manufacturer and its location):On 12 February, 17 HGV trailers were seized at the site of a materials-handling equipment manufacturer and another nearby premiseIt's probably just a typo but I reall...
Eggcorn: shoring up problems for the future
I came across this in raw copy recently. I'm not sure whether it's a typo or an eggcorn (and I still hate that term), but it made me laugh:this strategy is shoring up problems for the futureIt should, obviously, be 'storing' rather than 'shoring'. I ...
Thieves shoot truck driver with Taser
This week one of our publications is running a story about a truck driver who was attacked by thieves. They shot him with a Taser, bundled him into a car, dumped him nearby and stole his truck.In its original form, the story concluded: "The driver wa...
