Copyedit 101

[urth]

Since we have two copy editors in our midst and several other grammar geeks, I thought this thread was warranted.

From the front page of SFGate, in the blurb for their lead (about ramen noodles):

Jeff Yang pays tribute to this food which serves billions of people every year in the wake of its inventor Momofuku Ando's death.

[princessofcairo]

Since we have two copy editors in our midst and several other grammar geeks, I thought this thread was warranted.

From the front page of SFGate, in the blurb for their lead (about ramen noodles):

Jeff Yang pays tribute to this food which serves billions of people every year in the wake of its inventor Momofuku Ando's death.

good thing he only died once!

[Alicat]

I'm still driven crazy when I get email or anything in writing from an adult who misuses hear/here, there/they're/their.  Happens more frequesntly than it should. It really lowers my estimation of the intelligence of the writer.

[RGMike]

I didn't know where else to put this, but it is language-related, so...

Is "gi-normous" now officially a real word?  I've heard it used in 3 different commercials lately, and just now an astronomer, no less, used it on "Countdown" (Keith Olbermann was asking him about that big supernova that's in the news).

[urth]

I didn't know where else to put this, but it is language-related, so...

Is "gi-normous" now officially a real word?  I've heard it used in 3 different commercials lately, and just now an astronomer, no less, used it on "Countdown" (Keith Olbermann was asking him about that big supernova that's in the news).

Sad to say, but I think it is. I found it listed on the Oxford dictionary site.

[RGMike]

I didn't know where else to put this, but it is language-related, so...

Is "gi-normous" now officially a real word?  I've heard it used in 3 different commercials lately, and just now an astronomer, no less, used it on "Countdown" (Keith Olbermann was asking him about that big supernova that's in the news).

Sad to say, but I think it is. I found it listed on the Oxford dictionary site.

yup, it's official:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/10/national/a114035D37.DTL&tsp=1

[urth]

I didn't know where else to put this, but it is language-related, so...

Is "gi-normous" now officially a real word?  I've heard it used in 3 different commercials lately, and just now an astronomer, no less, used it on "Countdown" (Keith Olbermann was asking him about that big supernova that's in the news).

Sad to say, but I think it is. I found it listed on the Oxford dictionary site.

yup, it's official:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/10/national/a114035D37.DTL&tsp=1

Well, language is supposed to be fluid. Even when it's dumb.

[Lightnin' Rod]

So I'm reading this article about the Golf channel broadcaster who thought it would be funny to suggest lynching Tiger Woods:

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/7651694?MSNHPHCP?gt1=10838

This line in the article caught my eye:

"The Golf Channel said it received a limited number of complaints regarding the comment."

Well, obviously it was a limited number, because the only other choices are none and infinite.  The first is possible, the second not.  For that matter, how can the Golf Channel "say" anything?  A Golf Channel spokesman might.

Anyway, seems like shoddy writing by Fox sports, which shouldn't come as too big a surprise.  I was wondering what our resident copy-editors might think...

[Lightnin' Rod]

BTW, you copyeditor types might be interested in this season's "The Wire" on HBO.  In this the fifth and final season, they are focusing on the media and the decline of the daily newspaper.  In the season premier we learned that you can evacuate a building, but you can't evacuate people.  Well, you can, but it's messy...

Really, anyone not yet on "The Wire" bandwagon, rent the DVDs from season one on, catch up, and climb aboard.  Truly great TV.

[mshray]

BTW, you copyeditor types might be interested in this season's "The Wire" on HBO.  In this the fifth and final season, they are focusing on the media and the decline of the daily newspaper.  In the season premier we learned that you can evacuate a building, but you can't evacuate people.  Well, you can, but it's messy...

Really, anyone not yet on "The Wire" bandwagon, rent the DVDs from season one on, catch up, and climb aboard.  Truly great TV.

Big article on it in the latest Newsweek, which I read last night.  Will definitely be in my Netflix queue soon.

[Gazoo]

So I'm reading this article about the Golf channel broadcaster who thought it would be funny to suggest lynching Tiger Woods:

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/7651694?MSNHPHCP?gt1=10838

This line in the article caught my eye:

"The Golf Channel said it received a limited number of complaints regarding the comment."

Well, obviously it was a limited number, because the only other choices are none and infinite.  The first is possible, the second not.  For that matter, how can the Golf Channel "say" anything?  A Golf Channel spokesman might.

Anyway, seems like shoddy writing by Fox sports, which shouldn't come as too big a surprise.  I was wondering what our resident copy-editors might think...

We would have fixed both of those at Time.    And the others at work are far fussier about language and grammar than I am.

[mshray]

Am I the only one who has noticed an ongoing trend in the media to 'regularize' irregular English verbs?  The first one I noticed, and which now seems to be accepted as the new standard is the elimination of 'dove' as the past tense of 'dive'.  Myself, I always dove right in, but now it seems everyone dived right in.  There are others that I've noticed, but check out this latest from the write-up of the Stanford-Marquette 2nd round NCAA game (if you missed it, whoosh...what a nail biter...the Stanford coach Trent Johnson got ejected after consecutive T's late in the first half, but the Cardinal won anyway on a very difficult leaner by their 7-ft center with 1.3 secs left in overtime).

Two minutes later Stanford trailed, 36-25. Johnson was watching the whole thing on a locker room TV, worried that he'd just cost his team its NCAA tournament. But Stanford grinded its way back into the game.

Jeez, what next?  'finded'?

[RGMike]

Am I the only one who has noticed an ongoing trend in the media to 'regularize' irregular English verbs?  The first one I noticed, and which now seems to be accepted as the new standard is the elimination of 'dove' as the past tense of 'dive'.  Myself, I always dove right in, but now it seems everyone dived right in.  There are others that I've noticed, but check out this latest from the write-up of the Stanford-Marquette 2nd round NCAA game (if you missed it, whoosh...what a nail biter...the Stanford coach Trent Johnson got ejected after consecutive T's late in the first half, but the Cardinal won anyway on a very difficult leaner by their 7-ft center with 1.3 secs left in overtime).

Two minutes later Stanford trailed, 36-25. Johnson was watching the whole thing on a locker room TV, worried that he'd just cost his team its NCAA tournament. But Stanford grinded its way back into the game.

Jeez, what next?  'finded'?

It is truly the dumbing-down of our culture.  The jockheads (or more correctly the male 12-25 target demo) who watch ESPN think conjugating irregular verbs is, like, "totally gay". Seriously. Ever see Idiocracy?

[RGMike]

it's time again for "ask the NY Times copy editor":

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/business/media/24asktheeditors.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[RGMike]

When did "outlier" become a word, much less a popular one?  I'd never heard it before coming to work at Kaiser a year ago (it's quite popular here) and now I see it everywhere.