Absent Proof

Perspective

2012-02-23T10:51:00.000+11:00

Depending on your point of view, Kevin Rudd's inability to proofread his own letter of resignation may support the argument that he is unfit to be Prime Minister or the argument that he should have the job back, so that he can expand his staff to include someone who can proofread things carefully:

Better than a Slap in the Face with a Wet Fish?

2012-02-16T18:50:00.000+11:00

More of a slap in the face with a fat fist perhaps - something fat anyway:

Thank You Drng and Aptronym

2012-01-27T14:42:00.000+11:00

It seems that Britain has a new Prime Minister and Surry Hills Library decided to use the dyslexic they hired under equal opportunity to run the publicity for their inaugural spelling bee.

At the Art Gallery of New South Wales

2012-01-27T13:39:00.001+11:00

I can't understand what's happened at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Captions on walls are things that are not rushed into overnight and yet the place is littered with captions containing errors:

Presumably that was meant to read 'and wrote a memoir'.

I'm not mad about a principal passion being 'toward' something, although that is not strictly wrong. However, 'looking for way forward' is.

Shall I be boring again and point out that commas should ideally go round in pairs - there is one missing in the above caption. It should be inserted before the word 'anticipated'. Without it, the sentence is very hard to read.

I'm sorry Mr Capon, this maddens me, because it makes me read the sentence over and over again, puzzling about why it doesn't work. Whatever Edmund Capon actually said, the sentence, for the purposes of the poster, would have read better if edited thus: "This is the great Picasso show to which we have often aspired but which we have not yet achieved in Australia". It is the 'to' which makes things difficult, because the verb 'achieve' does not fit with it. You can't say, 'to which we have not yet achieved' and yet that is how the sentence is structured - as it stands, the verb 'achieved' depends on the clause beginning with that 'to'. It won't do.

They're Building a Road Now?

2012-01-18T17:11:00.000+11:00

Shouldn't that be passers-by, rather than by-passers:

Yet Again - Spellchecker, Where Are You When We Need You?

2012-01-18T17:09:00.001+11:00

But's that all? This is taken from a national newspaper, forsooth:

Their Holder's What?

2012-01-18T17:07:00.000+11:00

Cunning Swine

2012-01-18T14:43:00.002+11:00

Instead of making sure their signs are written in good English, the people in charge of storyboards on the walk from Taronga Zoo to Balmoral Beach have placed misty sheets of plastic over any offensive bits of prose for which they are responsible, in the hope that no-one will notice - and, if they do, that they won't be able to take photographs of the mistakes. In case it is too difficult to read, I should spell this one out - a permanent sign, paid for by taxpayers, states that Japanese submarines were sighted a certain number of 'metres of the coast'. This is not some quickly dashed off memorandum; this is something designed to be read by the public for years. Why on earth didn't anyone read it carefully? Grrr:

Apostrophe Overboard

2012-01-18T14:35:00.000+11:00

'Bradleys' might be considered adjectival and therefore exempt, but 'headlands' is not:

(Personally, I'd put a comma between 'location' and 'providing' as well, but that is a matter of taste, I suppose).

Indian Cricket

2012-01-18T14:31:00.001+11:00

This shows that spell-check is not always entirely useless (although it does have to be used, if it is to provide any help). I suppose one should be thankful that an extra 'r' wasn't also added, sending readers screaming from visions of horrible Mr Sting:

Although There's No Need to Get Obsessive

2012-01-18T14:27:00.000+11:00

Like this man (please let me never sit next to him at a party):

Getting it Right

2012-01-18T14:24:00.001+11:00

An example of why one should take care with text:

Who Needs Staff

2012-01-18T14:21:00.000+11:00

Provided you've got one qualified teacher, anything goes really:

The Real Question

2012-01-18T14:18:00.000+11:00

What I'd really like to know, though, is whether he still thought Dick Smith would be interested, an entirely different, although possibly easier to understand, question:

Which Four Months Was That?

2012-01-18T14:11:00.000+11:00

There was the four months since the four months ago but was that the four months that was after the four months ago or the four months that was before the four months since? Just asking:

I Think They'd Been Drinking

2012-01-18T14:07:00.000+11:00

If the people who wrote this hadn't been drinking, why did they suggest that we spend time 'on our' parks? Would it really have taken so much more effort to write, 'on our beaches and in our parks'? I suppose it would have, if your hand was already unsteady from spending the whole day on the turps:

I Ate It

2012-01-18T13:55:00.000+11:00

Because I love living dangerously:

What is that Comma Doing?

2012-01-18T13:51:00.000+11:00

The comma before 'a living there', what is its function? Is it, perhaps, a kind of punctuation alternative to a drumroll:

Ebooks Are Bad Enough

2012-01-18T13:46:00.001+11:00

Presumably an epublican is the man who fills drinks machines that sell beer and those horrible cans of premixed gin and tonic, et cetera:

What really scares me is the thought of the rise of the emocrats.

Is Consistency Enough

2012-01-18T13:40:00.000+11:00

I suppose the argument here is that abandoning the accent on divorcé is okay, if you have already done so on fiancé -but really it would be better, I think, to include both, in order to avoid ambiguity:

A Forlorn Apostrophe

2012-01-17T21:57:00.000+11:00

Poor little thing.

I Love This

2012-01-05T17:36:00.000+11:00

Apostrophe Catastrophe

2011-12-29T08:39:00.000+11:00

My Twitter friend Aptronym passed on this piece of illiteracy from the Boxing Day sales. Honestly, did no-one in the company notice?

Commas Again

2011-12-26T16:13:00.000+11:00

Why would a meltdown spread to Australia through a series of stress tests?

Or should there, possibly, be a comma between 'Australia' and 'through'?

And are commas being rationed at the Financial Review? Surely one could have been spared, to place after 'fortnight' (and shouldn't that, ideally, be 'of', rather than 'in' in the phrase 'some aspects in the ministerial ...'?

Meanwhile, in the first sentence of this passage, there appears to have been some kind of Georges Perec (La disparition) decision, although, instead of the letter 'e', it is commas that have been targeted for ostracism, (who knows why):

Reshuffle those Words

2011-12-16T18:26:00.000+11:00

And some who will have trouble forming a proper sentence:

Either, 'The result is there are some ministers who have too much on their plate to possibly be effective and some who ...' or 'The result is some ministers have too much on their plate to possibly be effective and some will have trouble justifying their existence'.

Great Artist, Dud Editor

2011-12-16T09:49:00.003+11:00

I'm sad that the attention to detail shown by the featured artist in this magazine was not copied by those in charge of the text.

Blistering Barnacles

2011-12-03T14:18:00.000+11:00

Was the Ancients' name for it censored? Instead of a blank before the bracket, should it read *!!*#*!!, in homage to Captain Haddock:

Semi-Literate

2011-12-03T14:16:00.000+11:00

It would have taken so little to transform this:

Wouldn't this be an improvement: 'The fire began burning last week, but late yesterday, fanned by winds gusting at up to 50km/h, it roared out of control, breaking containment lines.'

Batty Headlines

2011-12-03T14:13:00.003+11:00

It may be just me, but the impression I get from this one is that someone's been engaging in some dubious sexual practices (what exactly is 'sandbag' a euphemism for, I wonder):

Meanwhile, this one:

even though the article to which it is connected does eventually provide an explanation for that p-word:

fails to achieve the task of a headline - to instantly let most readers know what the article is going to be about.

More of the Enemy (Ambiguity, I Mean)

2011-12-03T14:05:00.000+11:00

Whose wife is being referred to here - Gilham's or Hills's:

Changing the opening line of the second paragraph to 'Gilham's wife, Robecca', (and yes, it appears that is how her name is spelled), would have removed any confusion.

Near Enough is Not Good Enough

2011-12-03T14:02:00.000+11:00

'Accessed' may look a lot like 'assessed' but the words have different meanings:

Oh Dear

2011-12-03T14:01:00.000+11:00

The most cursory bit of fact checking would have revealed that the name of the mother of Martin Amis is Hilary Ann Bardwell:

Old News

2011-12-03T13:57:00.000+11:00

In a paper published on the Friday in question, it is not a good idea to refer to an event as happening in the future when it actually occurred on the evening before publication:

The Enemy

2011-12-03T13:54:00.000+11:00

Unless intentional, ambiguity is the editor's enemy. This sentence would be far clearer if it were written thus: 'Opposition finance spokesman, Andrew Robb, has demanded that any government proposal to lift the borrowing cap should be presented as a stand-alone measure to Parliament' (and I think I'm right in putting those commas around Andrew Robb's name, since he is the only opposition finance spokesman in existence).

I Heart Semi-Colons

2011-12-03T13:50:00.000+11:00

If commas are not particularly fashionable, then semi-colons are wide satin lapels teamed with purple Crimplene flares. Nevertheless, I love a well-used semi-colon. For instance, in this passage, between 'mining' and 'we' a semi-colon would be so much better than that comma:

Commas

2011-12-03T13:48:00.004+11:00

'Less is more' is today's fashion when it comes to commas. As a consequence, they are often left out, at times when they could be helping readers to make their way through complex sentences. In my view, this is a mistake. Commas serve many useful roles and should not be treated as optional extras.

For instance, they often act as stepping stones, helping readers to thread their way through a tangle of clauses:

a) a comma between 'forth' and 'along' would work in that way here, I think:

b) commas around 'starting today' might give the reader a couple of places to rest and gather their thoughts here, (and can a government really be a force for the future? Surely, the future is a given; it does not respond to force):

c) a comma between' yesterday' and 'with' in the sentence beginning 'Mr Abbott' would stop any possible confusion about whether the promise came with the NSW business function, like some kind of free gift in a packet of cereal:

d) Again, a comma between 'reform' and 'even' would aid the reader to follow the meaning of the sentence beginning 'He skirted', in my view:

e) I would rewrite the main paragraph here so that it read thus: "Last night, the faction's position was being finalised, ahead of the economic policy debate, which is scheduled to follow Ms Gillard's opening speech at the ALP conference this morning"

Commas also help to eliminate ambiguity. For example, had the editor placed a comma after 'platform' in the paragraph beginning 'Ms Scott', there would have been no doubt at all that it was not the platform itself that was calling for an end to mandatory detention but rather Ms Scott and her mates:

Personally, I also think that, like their cousins, inverted commas, commas should almost always go about in twos. Thus, I would place a comma after 'so', in this passage:

and before 'if' in this one (I should also point out that 'not only' is in the wrong position):

and before 'when' in this one (and I would remove the comma and 'and' after 'billion' and replace it with that much neglected but superb piece of punctuation, the semi-colon):

Working on the same pairing policy, I would either remove the comma after 'sector' in this passage, possibly adding 'both' between the next 'sector' and the word 'had', or I would add another comma after the next occurrence of 'sector' in the piece:

Sometimes, of course, commas are redundant. It is disruptive and confusing, for example, to insert a comma that separates a verb from its subject:

'Hockey said he would look to monetary policy first and would want the RBA ...' seems to me to be perfectly fine.

I also cannot see what help the comma between 'business' and 'simplifying' is to anyone in this passage:

I would remove it and cut 'a promise to appoint', since 'promise' is really a repetition of 'pledge', and replace it with 'the appointment of a'. Here is my recast sentence: 'These included the appointment of a cabinet minister for small business and the simplification of the administration of compulsory superannuation contributions'. If you insisted on keeping 'promise', I would rewrite the sentence to read like this: 'These included promises to appoint a cabinet minister for small business and to simplify the administration of ....'

Verbless in Gaza

2011-12-03T13:21:00.000+11:00

Either the Left left their opposition to the proposal in the dustbin, or somebody left out the verb:

Twins

2011-12-03T12:44:00.000+11:00

Inverted commas need to go about in pairs at all times:

(and, what is more, I would have charitably removed that last 'going forward', a phrase that I hope made the Senator blush as soon as it was out of his mouth.)

Horrid

2011-12-03T12:42:00.001+11:00

I think 'meet with' is a silly phrase, particularly in this context; 'have discussions with' would probably far more accurately describe the process that will be undertaken, which is almost certain to involve telephone calls and emails as often as it involves meetings:

You What?

2011-12-03T12:39:00.000+11:00

I am not sure that a person who says, 'I don't not need' can start throwing round accusations about lunatics, (or, heaven forbid, has he been ill-served by the editor?):

In Answer to Your Question

2011-12-03T12:37:00.000+11:00

You are missing correct word order, just for a start:

Try to Agree

2011-12-03T12:35:00.000+11:00

Since when did 'savings' become a word that took a singular verb?

and, while we're at it, since when did 'advertisements' take a singular verb:

Tense Moments

2011-12-03T12:31:00.000+11:00

1. Labor is prepared ...if the crisis further destabilises OR Labor was prepared ...if the crisis further destabilised:

2. They are likely, if it comes OR they were likely, if it came:

Ergonomic Post

2011-11-29T11:54:00.000+11:00

@r_marce has pointed out this mistake in the Australian Financial Review, which he has kindly posted sideways, ensuring readers' improve their neck flexibility - or possibly it's just me being stupid and it's the right way round for everybody else.

This Has Got to Stop

2011-11-27T17:27:00.000+11:00

The word is definitely 'definitely'. Everywhere I look, it is becoming 'definately', but it is definitely not 'definately'; it is definitely. It definitely is:

They Usually Go in Pairs

2011-11-27T17:26:00.000+11:00

Either 'the glove's off'' or 'the gloves are off'':

The Worse for Wear

2011-11-27T17:22:00.000+11:00

It was claimed this morning on ABC television that the new Speaker of the Australian Parliament has a tendency to be tired and emotional quite early in the morning. It does seem to me, judging by this article, with its peculiarly isolated sentence beginning, 'But the ...' in the third column, that the sub may have been in a similar state:

There Should Be a Law Against It

2011-11-21T18:24:00.000+11:00

Surely they're protected (and anyway, where do they get them in Yass, which is where I saw this):

Wait for Me

2011-11-21T18:20:00.001+11:00

A former BBC correspondent called Nick Bryant wrote the Diary in the Australian version of the Spectator last week. As well as committing the sin of repeating one of his own jokes without a hint of self-deprecation:

he also seems unable to tell the difference between 'wait for' and 'await', which could be used beside 'for' in the sentence he has written, but only with a comma after it:

Speaking Ill of the Dead

2011-11-21T18:15:00.000+11:00

Many unpleasant things have been written about Peter Roebuck since he killed himself the other day, but surely it is scurrilous slander to suggest he bought his skills:

A Ha'porth of Tar

2011-11-10T12:59:00.000+11:00

I really wanted to enjoy the new novel called The Night Circus. Unfortunately, I kept being distracted by bad editing. For instance, in this extract:

what would it have taken to rewrite it thus:

'The magician scans the office, a stack of letters in one hand, a black velvet cape lined with shockingly white silk cascading behind him. He expects to see a paper-wrapped box or crate,'

Thus would have been avoided the confusing - and distracting - impression that the cape is expecting something.

So much time and effort goes into the writing of a novel; surely it is worth putting in that last bit of effort, to make sure it reads smoothly. And yet so often contemporary novels seem to miss out at this crucial stage.

Surprising News and Inaccuracy at the Sydney Morning Herald

2011-11-03T17:30:00.000+11:00

I thought Andrew Wilkie was opposed to heavy gambling and yet he is thinking of placing $1 on all poker machines - how much is that going to cost him:

As for Griffith being 'highbrow', I think that it would be more accurate to say that there would be a tight contest between the suburbs of O'Connor and Ainslie to gain that honour:

Or a Speciwoman

2011-10-23T00:41:00.000+11:00

Nitpick All You Like

2011-10-23T00:38:00.002+11:00

Bring Back Boris

2011-10-23T00:29:00.000+11:00

I'm sure I never saw mistakes in the Spectator when Boris Johnson was editing the magazine:

1. The phrase is 'bored out of your mind:

2. '...shouldn't this girl, trying to concentrate on more practical, realisable issues', do what?

3. Things so worse are that word order has gone awry:

Drop In

2011-10-14T18:29:00.000+11:00

Just because there's an 'in' in involved doesn't mean you can drop it when it's needed elsewhere in the sentence:

Modern Mystery

2011-10-14T18:26:00.002+11:00

What I want to know is why they all decided to get on top of his grandad's telly:

Huh?

2011-10-14T18:25:00.000+11:00

So it's rising slowly and soaring:

Less of That

2011-10-10T07:57:00.000+11:00

A bit less boldness, a bit more care, might have resulted in a better headline:

Not as Good as it Gets

2011-10-08T18:42:00.000+11:00

It looks as if some people have been conned by teachers into believing they can write grammatical English too.

Up and Over and On and In and Through and Under and Behind

2011-10-08T18:40:00.000+11:00

Extraordinary Spelling for an Extraordinary History

2011-10-01T21:02:00.000+10:00

From the New Statesman:

Whose Who's

2011-10-01T20:59:00.000+10:00

Heavens to Murgatroyd

2011-09-24T14:38:00.001+10:00

I agree with the comment on this picture (the picture's quite flattering though).

I Had a Good Job But I Left

2011-09-24T11:13:00.002+10:00

I may be revealing a streak of incipient racism, but it seems to me that the person who wrote this caption may have confused their left with their right:

One Day

2011-09-16T14:40:00.000+10:00

I loved the novel One Day but it was a touch and go thing at the start. The sloppy editing almost made me throw the book across the room, although in the end David Nicholls's excellent writing won out.

1. My biggest bugbear was the idiotic and repeated misuse of the word 'onto':
a. were they planning to climb on the roof of the pub:

b. was he planning to lie on a map of India:

c. 'I can rely onto' - hmm, sounds just that bit too clingy:

2. Then there was the editorial decision to replace 'all right' with 'alright', (but this I know is a losing battle; alright is winning, but I still think it's wrong):

3. There were also the irritating departures from grammar as we know it:

a. 'everyone seem to know':

b. "Yes, that's that what I meant":

4. Finally, there was the parenthetic dash that was left dangling, left permanently without its partner:

Noblesse Oblige

2011-09-15T10:54:00.000+10:00

I don't think the Duchess of Devonshire would stand for this.

Moo

2011-09-08T21:35:00.000+10:00

I don't think you can cow to something - you can only cow or be cowed:

Separate or Unflashy?

2011-09-06T18:32:00.000+10:00

Someone on Twitter who goes by the name of Albury Bible Fellowship spotted this in the Sydney Morning Herald:
http://twitter.com/#!/AlburyBF/status/110922350668677120/photo/1/large
Many thanks, Albury, if I may call you that.

Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

2011-09-04T09:50:00.000+10:00

If you put the word 'death' in a headline, the word 'axed' tends to suggest bloody executions, rather than sackings:

Ancient Potato

2011-09-01T10:21:00.000+10:00

I like the idea of our former Prime Minister sprouting (I've always thought he looked a bit of an ear- and nose-hair kind of man). However, I think the word the author was searching for was actually 'spout':

Strained Relations

2011-09-01T10:19:00.000+10:00

When did daughters stop being part of the family:

Enough Articles

2011-09-01T10:17:00.000+10:00

Since when did 'enough' take an article:

And party figures ought to be furious that Ms Jackson chose to refer the Thomson affair, ( I should point out, by the way, that I'm talking about verb tenses rather than principles.)

Miracle in the ACT

2011-09-01T10:13:00.000+10:00

These people, whose picture appeared in the Canberra Times, really don't look particularly old, but it seems they have a descendant who participated in World War I:

For the Want of a Comma

2011-08-26T11:58:00.002+10:00

The sentence beginning, 'There are no rallies ...' is entirely ambiguous. I imagine that the writer is saying that the reason there are no rallies or complaints is that most men have escaped 'this cultural curse', but, without a comma before 'because', the sentence could just as easily mean that Dior Homme does make size 40 waist jeans, but not because most men have escaped:

When using 'because' a good rule of thumb is to think about these two sentences: 1. I knew she'd been crying because she looked ugly - in this one her ugliness has provoked her tears. 2. I knew she'd been crying, because she looked ugly - in this, her ugliness is caused by her tears.

What a Difference a Vowel Makes

2011-08-25T11:28:00.000+10:00

Check those Facts

2011-08-17T10:48:00.000+10:00

On one page of the Australian yesterday there was this chart, which indicated that all but two of the High Court bench have been appointed by Labor:

On the opposite page, we were told that 'it is worth remembering a majority of the court - four - were appointed by the Howard government':

Which is true?

So True

2011-08-06T09:44:00.000+10:00

They're certainly ruling the Sydney Morning Herald. Apparently nobody there can actually be bothered to check whether all the necessary words appear on the printed page.

Alan and the Family Picnicking on a French River

2011-08-03T22:40:00.000+10:00

Cezanne saw Alan Bond's potential very early on:

Nothing is a Singular Noun

2011-08-03T11:37:00.000+10:00

I Thought her Gripe Was with News Limited

2011-08-03T11:36:00.002+10:00

Sack that Sub

2011-08-03T11:32:00.000+10:00

Hey Sydney Morning Herald, I don't mean to be rude, but the person who worked on your Murray-Darling article in today's edition made a total hash of the job:

A Clean Energy Future

2011-08-03T11:17:00.000+10:00

Is gas a renewable, as this sentence from the federal government's Clean Energy Future advertisement seems to imply:

Commas Make Sense

2011-08-03T11:14:00.003+10:00

In Nikki Savva's article in yesterday's Australian, a couple of commas, plus a semi-colon, would have made things clearer:

Today, in the Sydney Morning Herald, there were places where commas were missing:

and others where they really should not have appeared (why is there one after 'Glenn Stevens?):

Come Again?

2011-07-25T11:11:00.000+10:00

Are there separate measures for Ms Gillard's performance and for herself as a person or am I missing something: 'satisfaction with her performance moved from 30 to 32 ... satisfaction with Ms Gillard remains unchanged at 59'?

I Feel So Provincial

2011-07-19T16:07:00.001+10:00

In Canberra, we're barely up to providing decent restaurants, while those smarty-pant Londoners have moved on to something much more "high concept":

I want a reaturant, and I want it now.

Why Waste the Money?

2011-07-19T12:36:00.000+10:00

The Independent saves Julia Gillard the expense of a wedding:

This Has Got to Stop

2011-07-19T12:34:00.000+10:00

This error is becoming ubiquitous:

Workmen and their Tools

2011-07-19T12:32:00.002+10:00

Happy Plonk

2011-07-19T12:31:00.000+10:00

I've never been complimented by a plum but a strawberry once told me my hair looked nice:

Goo Goo Gah Gah

2011-07-19T12:29:00.000+10:00

Peter Beattie may be going bald, but there's no need to use baby language with him - he's not quite in his dotage ("Ooh, Mr ex-Premier, duz oo still think you done a good thing?":

Will it Be Able to Write a Good Sentence Though?

2011-07-19T12:25:00.002+10:00

They Were Away Learning Word Order

2011-07-19T12:19:00.002+10:00

Beyond Editing

2011-07-19T12:17:00.000+10:00

Sometimes it's the material that's to blame and not the sub-editor. On those occasions, there's nothing you can do, except put the words on the paper:

Breathless Excitement

2011-07-19T12:15:00.000+10:00

Personally, the prospect of a meal with Amanda Rishworth would not make me so flustered I began to repeat my words:

Rather Stupid

2011-07-19T12:08:00.000+10:00

There is a 'than' missing:

May Week Was in July

2011-07-19T12:05:00.002+10:00

Worrying

2011-07-09T11:45:00.001+10:00

Tomorrow, after weeks of waiting, Australia will finally discover what lies in store in the government's proposed legislation to impose 'a price on carbon.' Today, the current Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, is going to give a speech at a conference of her party, and, in this morning's Sydney Morning Herald, Philip Coorey speculates on what her speech will contain. What worries me is that, judging by his reporting, she is still uncertain herself about the exact terms of the deal - or could it be that a sub has wrongly added the quotation marks and the last line in this paragraph:

"It is to be expected the fuel exemptions for motorists will be extended"? Doesn't she know for sure?

Correct Procedures

2011-07-05T14:54:00.002+10:00

Sigh:

Wish

2011-07-05T14:23:00.000+10:00

The Australian's free magazine Wish is obsessed with style, but not with spelling:

Drinkng - it's the new drinking.