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quote:
Originally posted by FirenzeVeritas:
EH's full name was listed in two separate newsy/congratulatory articles in today's TD, so I assumed it was acceptable for us to congratulate her.

She is also listed at the author of the News Quiz. I had a hard time finding it after it was referred to in the article. For future weeks, it's listed under MultiMedia.


AH, I didn't get your post either at first. I don't read all the articles in the paper. Red Face

EH, "WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!" Big Grin

You are doing a great job. Keep up the good work.
quote:
Originally posted by FirenzeVeritas:
Andrea Moore has left the TD and is being replaced by Elizabeth Hoekenga. EH will manage the entire web site--Online news and forums.

Welcome, Elizabeth. We will keep you on your toes!


My first feedback for Elizabeth---

The TD today had an article that used the word "tenants" when to correct word would have been "tenets." That is just inexcusable. It was in a wire service article (I forget which), so I am not blaming TD staff, but the abuse of the English language in newspapers has greatly increased in the last decade or so owing, I believe, to the woefully deficient public education system in this country. When you read entries in the TD Forums, you will repeatedly encounter "you're" for "your" and the reverse thereof. You will find "their" and "there" used interchangeably. Both in the Forums and in the news reporting, the chronic, puerile and lucicrous misuse of cases can be found, as in, "They gave the award to he and I." I learned the correct use of the nominative and objective cases in the fifth grade in the public school system of Davidson county, Tennessee. Who is even teaching it today in the public schools? The mother tongue is being systematically crippled by neglect and by a "who cares?" attitude on the part of all too many who should know better, including not a few on the TD Forums.
BeternU -- I don't think she is the editor of the paper but is over the forums...Please don't ask her to edit things she has no control over...we thought you were moving forward with this...come back to the dark side...please, please please!!!! we are liking the "new you"!!!! you've shown you're fun than you give yourself credit for...
quote:
Originally posted by DixieChik:
BeternU -- I don't think she is the editor of the paper but is over the forums...Please don't ask her to edit things she has no control over...we thought you were moving forward with this...come back to the dark side...please, please please!!!! we are liking the "new you"!!!! you've shown you're fun than you give yourself credit for...


Hey, I never asked her to edit anything. This is the feedback section of the TD Forum and it should be fair game to comment here on anything related to issues with the paper, including grammar and spelling, etc. Even if she is not directly responsible for content of the print version, she is at least an inside person who just might call some of this stuff to the attention of staff who DO owe their readers a lot better editing than we have gotten from the TD in recent years.
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
My first feedback for Elizabeth---

The TD today had an article that used the word "tenants" when to correct word would have been "tenets." That is just inexcusable.


What is inexcusable is your overblown ego. If you are going to demand perfection, maybe you should begin with yourself: "when to correct word" should be "when THE correct word".
quote:
Originally posted by CrustyMac:
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
My first feedback for Elizabeth---

The TD today had an article that used the word "tenants" when to correct word would have been "tenets." That is just inexcusable.



What is inexcusable is your overblown ego. If you are going to demand perfection, maybe you should begin with yourself: "when to correct word" should be "when THE correct word".


Crusty, you need to recognize the difference between simple typos and patently incorrect word selection. With that perspective in place, you could concentrate on substance insted of ad hominem insults. I do not demand perfection, but one can at least expect that a professional journalist would be aware of the difference between "tenants" and "tenets." That difference is not minor or insignificant. Each time some young reader reads such an error in the newspaper, it leaves an impression of correctness, since a journalist who wrote it would be assumed to know which word is the correct one and the journalist's editor presumably would have at least equal command of the mother tongue. All too often such assumptions prove unreliable, and the impressionable reader might well adopt the incorrect version until or unless taught otherwise. Far better that those whose very trade involves the use of words as tools should select the correct word!
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
quote:
Originally posted by DixieChik:
BeternU -- I don't think she is the editor of the paper but is over the forums...Please don't ask her to edit things she has no control over...we thought you were moving forward with this...come back to the dark side...please, please please!!!! we are liking the "new you"!!!! you've shown you're fun than you give yourself credit for...


Hey, I never asked her to edit anything. This is the feedback section of the TD Forum and it should be fair game to comment here on anything related to issues with the paper, including grammar and spelling, etc. Even if she is not directly responsible for content of the print version, she is at least an inside person who just might call some of this stuff to the attention of staff who DO owe their readers a lot better editing than we have gotten from the TD in recent years.


beternu -- you even stated in your post that this was a article not written by the TD -- who is she going to call--Ghostbusters?
quote:
Originally posted by DixieChik:
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
quote:
Originally posted by DixieChik:
BeternU -- I don't think she is the editor of the paper but is over the forums...Please don't ask her to edit things she has no control over...we thought you were moving forward with this...come back to the dark side...please, please please!!!! we are liking the "new you"!!!! you've shown you're fun than you give yourself credit for...


Hey, I never asked her to edit anything. This is the feedback section of the TD Forum and it should be fair game to comment here on anything related to issues with the paper, including grammar and spelling, etc. Even if she is not directly responsible for content of the print version, she is at least an inside person who just might call some of this stuff to the attention of staff who DO owe their readers a lot better editing than we have gotten from the TD in recent years.


beternu -- you even stated in your post that this was a article not written by the TD -- who is she going to call--Ghostbusters?


You said, "Please don't ask her to edit things she has no control over..." and my reply was that I had not asked her to edit anything. But allow me to clarify. By suggesting that Ms. H., who seems to have impressive credentials, might call some of this stuff--meaning the recurrent and indefensible errors perpetrated by the TD staff--to the attention of that staff, she might have some beneficial effect on the quality of future reporting. Surely those staffers talk to each other about their craft and maybe some timely and informal advice on English usage would benefit some of the worst transgressors at least. If I worked for the TD, I would feel better about my job if the products of the labors of those journalists could be improved over their current barely mediocre average as regards the use of the greatest language in the world!
BeternU -- I agree the TD could be a better paper all the way around. I just know that AM and AP had their hands full with all of us on this forum and with the new projects EH is pursuing with the TD -- she will have an overflow of work to do....but maybe she can help you...now, come back to the darkside with the rest of us and have some fun....K? :-)
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:

Crusty, you need to recognize the difference between simple typos and patently incorrect word selection. With that perspective in place, you could concentrate on substance insted of ad hominem insults. I do not demand perfection, but one can at least expect that a professional journalist would be aware of the difference between "tenants" and "tenets." That difference is not minor or insignificant. Each time some young reader reads such an error in the newspaper, it leaves an impression of correctness, since a journalist who wrote it would be assumed to know which word is the correct one and the journalist's editor presumably would have at least equal command of the mother tongue. All too often such assumptions prove unreliable, and the impressionable reader might well adopt the incorrect version until or unless taught otherwise. Far better that those whose very trade involves the use of words as tools should select the correct word!


B, I'm with you, 100%. But give it a rest, man. The TD is a backwater newspaper, and if half the people in this town could actually write or speak at the level of what makes it into the daily paper, the literacy rate would go up about 1000%.

If it is such a concern for you, why don't you apply for a job as proofreader?
quote:
Originally posted by CrustyMac:
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:

Crusty, you need to recognize the difference between simple typos and patently incorrect word selection. With that perspective in place, you could concentrate on substance insted of ad hominem insults. I do not demand perfection, but one can at least expect that a professional journalist would be aware of the difference between "tenants" and "tenets." That difference is not minor or insignificant. Each time some young reader reads such an error in the newspaper, it leaves an impression of correctness, since a journalist who wrote it would be assumed to know which word is the correct one and the journalist's editor presumably would have at least equal command of the mother tongue. All too often such assumptions prove unreliable, and the impressionable reader might well adopt the incorrect version until or unless taught otherwise. Far better that those whose very trade involves the use of words as tools should select the correct word!


B, I'm with you, 100%. But give it a rest, man. The TD is a backwater newspaper, and if half the people in this town could actually write or speak at the level of what makes it into the daily paper, the literacy rate would go up about 1000%.

If it is such a concern for you, why don't you apply for a job as proofreader?


Easy to answer that. My altruism does not go that far. My current job pays probably 5 or 6 times the hourly rate for a TD proofreader.
I once spoke with Mr. Mitchell (the editor) and during the conversation broached the subject of the errors in syntax and grammar that regularly appear in the TD. At that time, he said much of what is written is sent from the writer's computer directly to the computer program formatting the newspaper. In other words, the reporter/columnist is the only one having control over what is published. If they do not proof read their own material, usually no one does.

Well, Elizabeth, how you like to so far?
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
quote:
Originally posted by CrustyMac:
If it is such a concern for you, why don't you apply for a job as proofreader?


Easy to answer that. My altruism does not go that far. My current job pays probably 5 or 6 times the hourly rate for a TD proofreader.


Obviously, your spare time isn't worth that much, since you do it for free already.

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