What THE F--k!!
And here I was pulling out my hair about DC's continuing misdemeanours, when a news report on rediff.com comes along to give it competition. http://www.rediff.com/sports/2008/oct/06anand.htm
Guess the editor must have asked the journo to give him a lot of articles, and so he got em all in one report..the only thing is that the articles, 'a', 'an', 'the' are all in the wrong places.
Just how does such English slip into print? The word, 'the' is used in places it has no business being, and then the writer gets cute with 'rallied back' while here I was thinking 'rallied' in this context meant 'fought back'. Seeing all this I feel like throwing in the towel, not 'throwing THE towel' like the report says:-)
Anyway, here is a small example of the bloopers for those not inclined to read the entire article: 'It was a memorable day for THE Indian badminton '...'V Diju and Jwala Gutta who wrote THE history first'..'Indian duo RALLIED BACK brilliantly'...'no mood to throw THE towel'... ( pssst...please dont attack me saying I'm elitist and English doesnt matter. It matters when u r reporting in that language, just like hindi mistakes in a Loksatta or Dainik Jagran are also mistakes).
Cheers folks, an on this bright note, i take THE leave:-))
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
the DC memoirs: some thoughts on a Daily Chronicle of errors
'All two of the accused were let off on bail....'
( yeah right...both of me thinks this sucks:d)
'Asses Employees.'
(this just came in the headlines of the employment page ; a feature on how to assess employees. By swallowing one 's', they made donkeys of everyone)
'The sub inspector said our reporter that the number of crimes...
(oh...i see...and what did the reporter told the cop?)
Missing Articles.
Loose Vowel Movements.
Death 'Sentences'
A Lax Syntax.
What's with journalese nowadays?
More to the point, with the language one finds in the pages of DC ( Deccan Chronicle) Chennai?
While most newspapers sport the odd mistake, DC seems to wear its badges of dishonour with a sneering indifference to articulation and grammar.
Reading through reports is like treading a swampy mulch littered with the ravaged carcasses of what once were proud words and sentences.
Adjectives cross-bred with inactive verbs and improper nouns abound in a cesspool of error strewn mediocrity.
Analyses are thought provoking, but the provocation comes not from the reasoning but the butchering of language.
Do they have editors there?
Sub editors mayhaps?
Does anybody proof check what comes out?
Or is everything subordinated to the next juicy scoop?
In this age of 24X7 news channels, every newspaper tries to 'break' a story first.
But no one breaks news like DC. Sentences are broken on the rack, grammar is rent asunder, and most reports and articles are semantically challenged.
Does anyone even bother?
Somebody tell me how they can come out with an average of a dozen typos and grammatical mistakes an issue and still keep their jobs.
I hear the marketing dept. knows their marbles.
The packaging of the paper rocks.
The circulation is skyrocketing ( the veracity of the figures is another story altogether)
But what about content?
Content beyond peurile comments accompanying pixelated page 3 photos.
Content that reports while coaxing you to think.
Content that plants seeds in the readers' minds, and not merely seeds of doubt.
Don't tell me that the content is driven by the market, and that a generation weaned on SMSese only wants 'pretty polly' pictures and wouldnt know a proper noun even if they stumbled upon one .
I know the Page 3 thingamajig has caught on, and everybody and their aunt's poodle wants to be featured in a party or, next best, take vicarious pleasure in seeing the gatecrashers being disrobed by comments such as ' this girl thinks she's pretty', 'someone please tell her to see a designer' etc..etc...ad nauseum.
Is this what journalism has become today?
Or, if the purveyors of these asinine broadsheets are to be believed, is this what the reader wants today?
Thank god every other newspaper doesnt think the same.
The leading local daily may be semi comatose with all the charisma of a moribund mortuary manager, and the new kid on the block may be zigging along on supercharged hormones, but at least you can read them without stumbling and tripping over carelessly thrown semantic banana skins.
There may be grammatical bloopers and typos that are party poopers, but by and large, the errors are the exception rather than the rule.
I think I've had it with DC.
I observed 27 syntactical mistakes in their first issue.
To their credit, they've managed to live up to their standards over time.
Tha last issue with big, bold headlines screaming 'Asses Employees' was the last straw that broke my long suffering back, and I'm calling the local vendor to consign DC to BC.
Unless, of course, there's an emergency.
Like running out of tissue paper :-)
( yeah right...both of me thinks this sucks:d)
'Asses Employees.'
(this just came in the headlines of the employment page ; a feature on how to assess employees. By swallowing one 's', they made donkeys of everyone)
'The sub inspector said our reporter that the number of crimes...
(oh...i see...and what did the reporter told the cop?)
Missing Articles.
Loose Vowel Movements.
Death 'Sentences'
A Lax Syntax.
What's with journalese nowadays?
More to the point, with the language one finds in the pages of DC ( Deccan Chronicle) Chennai?
While most newspapers sport the odd mistake, DC seems to wear its badges of dishonour with a sneering indifference to articulation and grammar.
Reading through reports is like treading a swampy mulch littered with the ravaged carcasses of what once were proud words and sentences.
Adjectives cross-bred with inactive verbs and improper nouns abound in a cesspool of error strewn mediocrity.
Analyses are thought provoking, but the provocation comes not from the reasoning but the butchering of language.
Do they have editors there?
Sub editors mayhaps?
Does anybody proof check what comes out?
Or is everything subordinated to the next juicy scoop?
In this age of 24X7 news channels, every newspaper tries to 'break' a story first.
But no one breaks news like DC. Sentences are broken on the rack, grammar is rent asunder, and most reports and articles are semantically challenged.
Does anyone even bother?
Somebody tell me how they can come out with an average of a dozen typos and grammatical mistakes an issue and still keep their jobs.
I hear the marketing dept. knows their marbles.
The packaging of the paper rocks.
The circulation is skyrocketing ( the veracity of the figures is another story altogether)
But what about content?
Content beyond peurile comments accompanying pixelated page 3 photos.
Content that reports while coaxing you to think.
Content that plants seeds in the readers' minds, and not merely seeds of doubt.
Don't tell me that the content is driven by the market, and that a generation weaned on SMSese only wants 'pretty polly' pictures and wouldnt know a proper noun even if they stumbled upon one .
I know the Page 3 thingamajig has caught on, and everybody and their aunt's poodle wants to be featured in a party or, next best, take vicarious pleasure in seeing the gatecrashers being disrobed by comments such as ' this girl thinks she's pretty', 'someone please tell her to see a designer' etc..etc...ad nauseum.
Is this what journalism has become today?
Or, if the purveyors of these asinine broadsheets are to be believed, is this what the reader wants today?
Thank god every other newspaper doesnt think the same.
The leading local daily may be semi comatose with all the charisma of a moribund mortuary manager, and the new kid on the block may be zigging along on supercharged hormones, but at least you can read them without stumbling and tripping over carelessly thrown semantic banana skins.
There may be grammatical bloopers and typos that are party poopers, but by and large, the errors are the exception rather than the rule.
I think I've had it with DC.
I observed 27 syntactical mistakes in their first issue.
To their credit, they've managed to live up to their standards over time.
Tha last issue with big, bold headlines screaming 'Asses Employees' was the last straw that broke my long suffering back, and I'm calling the local vendor to consign DC to BC.
Unless, of course, there's an emergency.
Like running out of tissue paper :-)
Monday, August 25, 2008
A.Banker's Ramayana
The Ramayana? Again? Written by, of all people, a Banker? Shucks...a con job with its own tell tale rattle. Or should that be tattle? Whatever....Doh! Is this the zillionth reinvention of the wheel or what? Some dude who got lucky and sold the epic to those gullible firangs…just like our politicos who tried selling off the Taj Mahal( or was that just a 99 year lease?) or Britney Spears who sold a virginal image to a salivating public!
Sheesh maan…i wouldnt be caught dead reading rehash # 100000000000.
You’ve heard of famous last words? Hmmmmph…they musta invented the expression keepin me in mind. I not only went and read 'The Prince of Ayodhya', i read it in one single sitting( actually a combo of sitting, lounging, squatting…ad nauseum) till my eyes grew larger than Aamir Khan’s ego. And that’s big, believe you me!
I just lurved the way the story was retold, the tension in the narrative that kept my reading bowstring taut till it quivered unbearably….i consumed the book like a starving Somali would a feast…and then proceeded to eat my words, if not with relish, with a certain flavor that inevitability brings.
This book rocks, and i’m in love with the Ramayana all over again, and i can't wait to dig into the other five. And, for once i can pass off gluttony as an epic-urean taste…lol:-))
Thanx Ashok. Now stop preening and get to writing a thousand more books, coz i’m going to live long, and i need to be entertained.
Sheesh maan…i wouldnt be caught dead reading rehash # 100000000000.
You’ve heard of famous last words? Hmmmmph…they musta invented the expression keepin me in mind. I not only went and read 'The Prince of Ayodhya', i read it in one single sitting( actually a combo of sitting, lounging, squatting…ad nauseum) till my eyes grew larger than Aamir Khan’s ego. And that’s big, believe you me!
I just lurved the way the story was retold, the tension in the narrative that kept my reading bowstring taut till it quivered unbearably….i consumed the book like a starving Somali would a feast…and then proceeded to eat my words, if not with relish, with a certain flavor that inevitability brings.
This book rocks, and i’m in love with the Ramayana all over again, and i can't wait to dig into the other five. And, for once i can pass off gluttony as an epic-urean taste…lol:-))
Thanx Ashok. Now stop preening and get to writing a thousand more books, coz i’m going to live long, and i need to be entertained.
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