PC World misspells a contraction

PC World reported on a new service by Google called Buzz and misspelled “hasn’t” by leaving out the “n”.

Note: We are experimenting with quotation marks, as part of an ongoing study to examine their interaction with other punctuation marks. The quotation marks around the letter “n” above would be incorrect in American English but correct in British English. We currently believe that the British version is a better rule. There is no reason to include the period in the quotation in this instance, as it confers to additional information to the quotation and may, in fact, confuse a reader into thinking that the period is part of the omission.

CNN forgets period

CNN reported on the Special Senate Election in Massachusetts. In the article, they forgot a period at the end of a sentence.

NY Daily News forgets a space

The NY Daily News reported on Hobey Baker Award winner and rookie Rangers defenseman Matt Gilroy’s ridiculous demotion and left out a space in the phrase “22 skaters.” Gilroy recently completed his senior season at Boston University, where he led the team to win every possible piece of hardware a college hockey team could imagine.

Vancouver Sun does not complete sentence

The Vancouver Sun, reporting on the tragic loss of a Canadian reporter who was covering the war in Afghanistan, did not complete a sentence caption that it was writing.

While this blog is nothing more than a dumb copy errors blog, we are sorry for the loss of all those whose lives have been taken in wars, including this reporter Michelle Lang and the four Canadian soldiers who died alongside her.

ESPN forgets period

In an article about American football, ESPN forgot a period at the end of a sentence.

USA Today goes nuts with ellipses

USA Today recently wrote an article about American football and used an inappropriate number of periods for its ellipsis.

Unknown syndicated source misplaces comma

An unknown syndicated source, reproduced on BBC and several other news outlets, ran a story about Tiger Woods and one of his sponsors. In this article, they quote a source, “He’s in a very, nasty awkward position ….” It is not a “nasty awkward position” but rather a “nasty, awkward position.” The phrase “very nasty” should be one modifier and not separated.

USA Today blog misspells “wear”

A USA Today sports blog reported on LeBron James’ decree to give up his number in honor of the retired great Michael Jordan. For a number of reasons, it’s kind of silly. USA Today meant to say “wear” and said “were.” Darn that spell checker and its unwillingness to ask the grammar checker before okaying things. Additionally, it appears that USA Today do not put an additional comma before the “and” at the end of lists, which is common in local style, though I do not prefer it since it makes the last two items in a list appear to be one, inseparable item. Finally, the mixing of modifiers for each item in the list is jarring to me, and I do not prefer it.

BBC switches words

The BBC were reporting on the NASA/ESA Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI), in which the BBC made two errors. They switched the words “Exploration” and “Joint,” and they did not capitalize the acronym properly.

Boston Globe’s MetroDesk makes two errors

The Boston Globe is a major newspaper that runs several blogs, including one called MetroDesk, which reported on a stabbing in Brighton, MA. I am not convinced this is flat-out incorrect, but I think it should read, “… found the victim at about 2:16 am ….” If the modifier “about” was not in this sentence, then it would be incorrect. Additionally, I think that “avenues” should be capitalised, since it is the complete name of both streets, Brighton Ave and Harvard Ave.

Naturally there is some hesitation on my part whenever I am posting about grammar in stories where something tragic has occurred. It is not at all my intention to diminish the value of the stories, but I feel that these stories deserve proper copy editing to convey their important content more accurately.

Additionally, I would like to note that I’m now considering major blogs to be fair game, since their readership is vast, and they should be held to higher standards of journalism. However, I cannot and will not publish every mistake Engadget makes, since I’d have to hire an assistant.