Daily Express, December 14, 2017
This is a common error. Poor Romeo had only one romance, and that turned out badly. The name you want here is Casanova, meaning a man who has multiple lovers. An alternative is Lothario, but that additionally implies deceitful behaviour.
i newspaper, December 15, 2017
How can you select a story that revolves round a picture, then not use the picture? You can see it on this link:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-12/massive-scrub-python-blocks-queensland-road/9250042
It’s not the best picture ever, but you either use it with the story or you don’t use the story. Or, I suppose, don’t mention the picture. Anything but the way it is done here.
i newspaper, December 15, 2017
This story was immediately above the snake one. In exactly the same way, it’s useless without the picture, which was in the Times:
The Times, December 15, 2017
This makes it perfectly clear, and it’s the sort of thing that readers might talk about.
I simply cannot understand what goes on in the head of a person who can deliberately decide not to use pictures on obvious picture stories. There are enough stories around to fill holes.
The Times, December 14, 2017
This is one of three words which sound the same, but it’s the wrong one. ‘Palate’ is the roof of the mouth or personal sense of taste; a ‘pallet’ is what goods are stacked on, and a ‘palette’ is what an artist uses, or metaphorically a range of flavours or sensations, which is the one wanted here.
Channel 5, November 29, 2017
Mail Online, December 14, 2017
Suddenly I am seeing ‘that’ used everywhere instead of ‘who’. In this context, ‘that’ is a relative pronoun introducing a defining clause, such as ‘the tree that has been here for 400 years’. However when you are talking about people, the word you want is ‘who’. If you are talking about animals, it is ‘which’. In fact for all non-human references I think ‘which’ is more elegant than ‘that’, so: ‘the tree which has been here for 400 years’.
These two letters appeared in the i newspaper on December 13, 2017
I have been going on about this horrible expression for ages but I fear it is on the increase. This is my entry in the ‘Banned’ section of Style Matters:
fall pregnant: Absolutely not. This is a downmarket expression with sexist connotations of ‘fallen woman’. A woman may become pregnant, find she is expecting, or conceive.
Another entry from Style Matters:
pre: This means in advance, so pre-planned, pre-recorded, pre-ordered and pre-prepared are tautological.
Sadly, I’m sure it won’t be long before we see ‘fell pregnant’ and ‘pre-whatever’ again in the i newspaper and every other publication.
The Times, December 13, 2017
(69 words) The line about p-p-p-picking up a p-p-p-penguin is from a 1970s advert, and it has been done to death in the 40-odd years since. I hoped I might have seen the last of it, but some fool has exhumed it. It wasn’t funny even at the time, and what relevance does it have now?
In such a short story, it is a waste of precious words to try a smart intro, even if it is smart, which this one isn’t. How about a comparison with today’s biggest penguin, the emperor, to put it in perspective? And if you are going to explain part of the Latin name, you have to explain all of it.
This is how I would do it:
The fossil remains of a giant penguin have been found in New Zealand. The bird, which lived 60million years ago, was 5ft 10in tall and weighed nearly 16st. By comparison, today’s largest penguin, the emperor, is 4ft and up to about 7st. Alan Tennyson, the scientist whose team made the discovery in Otago, has named it Kumimanu (‘monster bird’ in Maori) biceae (after his mother Bice). (68 words)
Daily Express, December 11, 2017
(88 words) The construction used in the intro, known as a ‘dangling’ or ‘hanging’ participle, means that the first clause describes the first object or person referred to thereafter. So we have the new portrait standing in the Grand Corridor (note: caps on both words) at Windsor, not the Duke. My favourite example of getting this wrong was on BBC radio in September 2009: ‘Fifty years after his suicide, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has apologised to computer pioneer Alan Turing.’
The same error occurs in the second paragraph. Philip has not been painted, his portrait has. A better way of putting it would be:
In the picture by Australian Ralph Heimans, Philip is wearing . . .
This adds the fact that Heimans is Australian. I would think it is fairly obvious that he is an artist.
Given that the prince has retired because of his age, it would be good to put in that he is 96.
This would be my attempt:
STANDING in the Great Corridor at Windsor Castle, this is the Duke of Edinburgh in his latest portrait.
He is depicted wearing the blue sash of Denmark’s highest honour, the Order of the Elephant, to mark his close family association with the country.
Australian Ralph Heimans, who also painted the Diamond Jubilee portrait of the Queen, said: ‘I hope it does justice to his unique character.’
The portrait of the 96-year-old duke, who retired from public engagements in August, will go on display in the UK and Denmark next year. (90 words)
i newspaper, December 11, 2017
Doesn’t this go without saying?
BBC News Online, December 10, 2017
This illiterate confusion of plural and singular was the top headline on both the BBC World and UK news pages. I despair.
I’ve mentioned before that I rarely feature Mail Online because it’s the exception when they get something right, but I couldn’t resist this. You need to know that the man involved is Professor Terence Meaden.
Extracts from: Was Stonehenge constructed as part of a fertility cult?
Mail Online, December 10, 2017
Professor Terance Meade said Stonehenge was built to be a ‘play without words’
Prod Terance said the phenomenon would represent fertility for the builders
Professor Meaden examined nearly 20 stone circle across Britain
Professor Terance Meade of said the Stonehege’s ancient builders create a ‘play without words’
The professor also identified other important dates pick out by the stones
Further sundries carried out at six other circles in County Cork
But Professor Mike Paker-Pearson [his name is Parker Pearson, no hyphen] from University College London is less convinced of the theroy.