We Regret the Error: Blog Report 2

Errors are a crucial part of any writers job. Editing and proofreading a piece of writing is crucial for clarity and readability. No writer will catch one hundred percent of his/her errors all the time, their is usually room for improvement in most writing. Journalist face extra stresses because of the time constraints that come with deadlines; therefore, they must learn to edit quickly and efficiently. I would have to agree with Craig Silverman, the best way to learn from mistakes is to make them. In writing, just like in any art or skill, practice makes perfect. This is true with accuracy and errors as well. Even proffesional journalists make mistakes when the news needs to get out quickly, but in accordance with Silvermans statement, the more time spent writing to quick deadlines the less errors you will make. I founds some commom clarical and grammatical errors in Canadian online news.

I found this run-on sentence on macleans.ca in the article "Politics of fear." This sentence continues on and on with commas and begins to be hard to understand. The article read somewhat smoothley up until this paragraph, the lack of clarity and a confusing unattributed quote made it hard to read this paragraph/sentence: "I had thought, and written, that the return of Parliament, after all the controversy over prorogation, would see “a ferocious battle of narratives” between a government determined to use the dual occasion of the Throne Speech and budget to shift the agenda on to its preferred ground of the economy, and an opposition equally determined to keep the heat on the government over its handling of the Afghan detainees file, and its refusal to hand over the documents Parliament had demanded in this regard." When a sentence runs on like this it can turn readers away from the article, especially after they have read the lead. People browse quickly through articles online and will tend to move on if the article becomes difficult to read.

In the article "World's smallest man dead at 21: Guinness World Records," on the lead contains a Canadian Press style error: "The world's shortest man, He Pingping, who stood just over 2-foot-5 inches tall, has died, Britain's Guinness World Records said Monday. He was 21." The sentence should read "...who stood just over two-foot-five inches tall." also the first part of the lead could be reworded. "The world's shortest man, He Pingping, 21, who stood..." or "...inches tall, has died at 21, Britain's Guinness..."this way the lead can work as one sentence instead of two.

In the article "Docs need standard method to ID seniors' driving skills," one sentence reads "The consequences of stripping a senior's licences also hang heavy in doctors' minds, he said." The article a is singular while licences is plural. The sentence also reads like an alliteration out of a Dr.Suess book, but is still grammaticly correct aside from that error. Nobody's perfect, and there is no way to fully elimate errors in your writing, so the only way to practice is to, of course, write.