I have been looking through newspapers recently in search of editing errors. I did not have to look farther than Athens' local papers. For the sake of relevance, I will discuss the most recent flaws that I've discovered. Today's issue of the Red and Black contained the article "Greek seminar tackles hazing." While I found no real grammatical or style errors in the article, there were number of issues regarding content and organization I would like to address. The lead does a decent job of summarizing the subject of the article. But the attribution, "...panel members discussed in a presentation," is vague. Was the presentation only on hazing? Members of what panel? Where was the presentation? The next graph contains a quote by the advisor to the National Pan-Hellenic Council and gives the name of the presentation, "I Stand Accused," but the members of the panel remain unclear. I am left to assume that the three people quoted were the only members of the panel. The other imperfect article I found was less confusing.
The article “Alert neighbor spies suspicious stranger” from the today’s Athens-Banner Herald contained a style error when it used to abbreviation GPS on first reference. According to the AP Stylebook, Global Positioning System should be used on first reference, and the abbreviation GPS on second reference. Also, the phrase, “thin gloves that thieves often use to avoid leaving fingerprints,” implies that the suspect is a guilty and does not accurately describe the gloves. Perhaps naming the material of the gloves would have provided a more in-depth description. In addition, the article states that the robbery suspect, Anthony Ellison, was charged with possession of tools for a crime, but there was no mention of those tools earlier in the article.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Nice catch on the first reference of GPS. Your attention to detail shows that you are a good editor in the making.
ReplyDeleteIn the hazing article I think that the example of hazing is unclear. Eric Atkinson the student affairs president cites an example of a freshman who died while participating in a hazing activity. I think that the article only shows on point of view the negative and extreme. While the death of this student is terrible, those are not normal acts of hazing and better example of hazing should have been presented. Moreover, they should have had interviews of people who are in greek organizations who were never hazed and have gotten a lot out of their greek experience.
ReplyDelete