Rot in the newsroom

Posted on by

Dave Miller sent this in:

We finally got an official newsroom stylebook, published not in print
but on our SII system, and I eagerly took a look (I’d been here less
than a year). The ‘book contained an entry for “badly decomposed,” noting that would anybody ever describe a dead body as “well decomposed”? The next day, a front-page story told of a woman who had been found dead in her apartment. Her body was — you guessed it — “badly decomposed.” A follow-up story a month later repeated the gaffe.

A good thing her house didn’t burn down — we might have had the cops “sifting through the rubble.“

Wretch a sketch

Posted on by

Luke Seeman (easily one of the coolest guys on the planet) sends these along:

  • “Sketchy,” as in, “kinda sketchy.” What
    the hell does it mean?
  • “Issues” when people mean to say “problems.”
  • And of course “enough said” and its cousin, “’nuff
    said.” People who use them invariably mean, “There is more
    to be said but I can’t think of it now.”

    • Too much

    Posted on by

    From Donna Migliore

    Please, can’t people stop using the phrase “all too“?
    The meaning of the phrase is all too obscure and it’s used all too often.

    The killer you know

    Posted on by

    Christopher Palmer, who probably lives in a dangerous neighborhood, will be prepared when the inevitable happens:

    When someone commits a terrible crime, the neighbors always say, “He was a quiet guy who always kept to himself” (or some very slight variation). If my neighbor ever commits a crime, I’m telling the reporters, “He was a madman! He wandered around half-naked screaming obscenities! He had sex with goats!” (even if he was a quiet guy who always kept to himself).

    She feels our pain

    Posted on by

    Jennifer Bulat sent these pained sentiments along:

    I’m a copy editor until I die; few I work with understand my perverse love of editing. Here are my pet peeves:

  • “kicked off“: Meetings no longer can begin; they
    have to be “kicked off” by a rousing speech from a congressman
    or some other talking head. This phrase should be confined to football.
  • corporate-speak seeping into the lexicon: People aren’t busy anymore;
    they have “a lot on their plate.” They don’t talk,
    they “have a conversation” about something or “communicate
    that to    ” someone else. They don’t explain things to each
    other; they “make sure we’re all on the same page.”Aaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhh. Make it stop.

    • Exacting

    Posted on by

    Phil Roberts-Thomson makes this plea to the literary world:

    I hope, in vain, that I will never again read “exact same“.
    Not only is it a tautology, but it should be “exactly the same
    as.” My wife came to the phrase in a poorly written contemporary
    novel. In disgust, she threw the book across the room (in reality she
    was pleased for the excuse).

    Approximately annoying

    Posted on by

    Sonia Jaffe Robbins, professor of journalism, responded to my desperate plea that she inflict the Banned for Life list on her impressionable young newsies. Sonia’s reply:

    I love your “banned” page. Yes, it goes to my students, immediately.
    And here are my contributions, just off the top of my head (there are
    many more deep in my memory bank, and I hope they stay there):

  • “Approximately 375…” or any exact number. Yes,
    I know the harried copy editor doesn’t want to write out that number
    at the beginning of a sentence, but surely there are other ways to
    recast.
  • Anyone on trial who is “found innocent.” No jury
    finds the accused innocent; the verdict is “not guilty.”
    Yes, I know the fear of dropping the word “not” and publishing
    “guilty” instead of “not guilty,” but in these
    days of computerized type and layout, that isn’t likely to happen
    anymore, is it?
  • Investigators are always sifting through the rubble after
    airplane crashes. Please have them do something else.
  • “It’s a no-brainer.” It certainly is a no-brainer
    to come up with this phrase. Maybe writers and editors could try using
    their brains to say something else?
  • And the person in the hospital who “fights for life.”

    • He was always a bit different

    Posted on by

    Martin Hillman bids death to redundant use of “different”:

  • “He spoke five different languages and had worked in four different countries.” How grateful he must have been: His
    life would have been dull indeed, and semantically complex, if he
    had spoken identical languages or visited countries which were identical.
  • And then there are the ones like the steeply sloping ramp: a surreal steeply level ramp would have been much more fun.
  • Or fast-moving traffic — it really makes one hanker for the fast-stationary sort.

    • Driving us to drink

    Posted on by

    William B. Eustis suggests there’s surely a better way to say:

  • “Drugs and alcohol.” — I know that this is a style
    required by some organizations. It is clearly redundant and suggests
    that alcohol is not a drug.
  • “Substance abuse.” – What substance is being abused?
    Walking on my lawn could be considered “SA.”
  • “Self-titled.” (As in: “Joe Blow’s new self
    – titled CDƒ”) What, the CD gave itself a name? Either use
    the title or use the perfectly useful “eponymous” and make
    ’em look it up.
  • A further note on “At this point in time.” – Not
    only is this used for “now,” it has also become a bad synonym
    for “then.”