What the sub-editor saw - Emphasis

What the sub-editor saw What the sub-editor saw Hello, Im Cathy, and Im a sub-editor (scourge of the newsroom, pedant and dictionary botherer). As such, my job is to spot inaccuracies, correct typos, clean up grammar and write headlines. I spend most of my time working at the broadsheets, where the copy is of very high quality. Even so, there are still plenty of opportunities for words to go crazy and cause mayhem, as they have a way of doing. Ill be keeping an eye out while Im on my rounds, and reporting in to Emphasis from time to time on the mistakes I find. After all, what better way to learn than from the mistakes of others? (Far less painful than ones own!) This week From triplets to tautology, the wrong Teresa to the wrong Labour politician, heres a round-up of a few corkers I spotted this week. Youve probably heard the nursery rhyme As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with seven wives; each wife held seven sacks, each sack had seven cats Well, I was reminded of that when I spotted this sentence, which features a common tautology (tautology: using multiple words to describe the same thing). Farhana Shaukat, a mother of three triplets, gave a clue as to why the pupils were queuing up outside. They get bored with the holidays, she said. Three triplets? So how many were going to St Ives three or nine? Triplets only has one meaning: three children born at the same time. The addition of three is unnecessary, but surprisingly common (along with the other favourite two twins). Its not a big mistake, by any means. But its worth avoiding even if only for the reason that some stickler will always pick you up on it otherwise (erm, yes, thats me). Health risk Moving on swiftly, we go from an extraneous word to a missing word and this time, an important one. This is a good example of how one word can completely change the meaning of a sentence. And its so easy to do, especially when youre in full flow and thinking faster than you can write. The following was very nearly published as the headline to a piece on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. Spot the missing word. World Trade Centre attacks left rescuers and bystanders with raised risk of physical and mental health, Lancet reveals Its not only missing words that can cause mischief letters can be equally troublesome. The following sentence has a letter missing. Can you spot it? The inquiry, ordered by Teresa May, is being carried out by Her Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary. Its an h. The home secretary is a Theresa, not a Teresa. Pah! you say. Thats just a typo, nothing to sweat over. And yes, thats fair. But a Teresa May does exist, and she has a profession that our Theresa probably wouldnt appreciate being associated with. Ahem. (Shes a porn star.) Lets play spot the letter again, in a similarly scandalous vein. This time, though, youre looking for an extra one, not a missing one. Ready? This month a 51-year-old officer will answer police bail after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public officer over alleged unauthorised leaks from the Operation Weeting phone-hacking inquiry. Misconduct in a whaaat? Madre mia! That should, needless to say, read misconduct in a public office. Brown, in the farmhouse, with the Okay, thats more than enough smut. Back to serious things. This final example is one of those mistakes that is terrifyingly easy to make when youve been working on something at length and suddenly your brain turns bad and attacks you. This came at the end of a very long and detailed story on Alistair Darlings new book, in which the words Brown and Darling occurred many times over, and always in the right place until That weekend, Brown reveals that he held a secret meeting with Miliband at a farmhouse in Essex. Grammatically, its fine. No typos, no dodgy apostrophes. So whats the problem? Simply that its wrong. It was Darling, not Brown, who revealed and attended the secret meeting and the scary truth is that no spellcheck can pick up that kind of (potentially libellous) mistake. The moral of the story? Proofread, proofread and proofread. Ideally, ask someone else to proofread for you and dont feel bad if they pick up errors. None of the mistakes Ive mentioned above were made through ignorance or stupidity simply through human error. We all make em. The best protection is knowing it. This is a guest blog post by Cathy Relf, a freelance sub-editor.