#64

His coffin will be taken to the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster where he will lay at rest for 24 hours.

BBC News online, April 9, 2017

Shocking ignorance from the BBC. The verb is ‘lie’, not ‘lay’, and the expression is ‘lie in rest’, not ‘at’.

This was corrected after some hours. However much later in the day this heading appeared in Mail Online:

Hero PC is flanked by police guard of honour as his body is brought to lay in the Palace of Westminster

This was not corrected by the next day.

For a full explanation of lie and lay, see Grammar in Style Matters.

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I cannot stress strongly enough that it takes years of experience to make a good sub-editor. When I was a junior sub, almost everyone else in the department was older and wiser, and the benefit of their experience was passed down to me. A chief sub would often point out how things could be improved. These days most older subs have been dispensed with and there is no one to teach or mentor the younger ones. Staffs have been so reduced that no one has time to guide anyone else.

This clinic is an attempt to pass on my experience using real examples. I would love to receive items from others as I do not read every paper every day. I will add new entries as I come across them.