Editing Detective, Matt White

Major news publications are constantly releasing material full of grammatical errors. These minor errors just seem to have a way of sneaking onto the copy. Unlike my blog on Editing for the Web, or my post focusing on the importance of accuracy, this particular blog post is meant to show how common simple-errors are made in the world of online journalism. The following errors were all found within a week's time from local papers. Whether or not you feel this says something about the rushed atmosphere of online journalism leading to numerous simple errors is something I leave up to you.

The first error comes from The Edmonton Journal.

Fort McMurray does not have a hyphen in between Mc and Murray.

The second error also comes from The Edmonton Journal.

The rarely used ellipsis does not require a space in-between each period.

The third error also comes from The Edmonton Journal.

In this sentence, eight year old does not have to be hyphenated because it is not modifying anything.

The fourth error also comes from The Edmonton Journal.

There's a bit of a tense problem in this sentence. Saying they were "drinking at a south-side bars" is grammatically incorrect. In order to be correct, it could either have been "a south-side bar" or at "multiple south-side bars."

The fifth error comes from The Edmonton Sun.

This would be classified as an incomplete sentence. It seems like it should have said: "as a Toronto escort for over 21 months." However, without speaking to the author, we can only assume what the sentence should have looked like.

The last, and perhaps the simplest error, also comes from The Edmonton Journal.

I don't believe there should be a space in the middle of the word effort.

Every error posted here was found in my daily news reading. I did not have to go searching the web for them, they're everywhere. These types of errors are embarrassing for both the writer and the publication. The moral of the story? Thoroughly proofread and edit before submitting your work.

If you feel hungry for more errors, check out Nancy's or Tyler's detective work on the news industry.

Image by ElectraSteph on flickr.