Proofreading - a dying art (Page 2): I loved this one... http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/6/8/8748933/pat-venditte-switch-pitcher-newspaper-headline-amphibious-pitcher...

rcolmansr60

I loved this one...
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/6/8/8748933/pat-venditte-switch-pitcher-newspaper-headline-amphibious-pitcher

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

My favorite was a headline I saw: "Death of man found with knife in back ruled suspicious"

And then there was the famous juxtaposition in the Denver paper that had a short article about the worker at the Coors plant who died after falling into a vat. Just beneath it was an ad that said: "At Coors, our people make the difference"!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I love headlines like that, although I'm sure some are intentional. Newspapers often have intentional amusingly-worded headlines.

http://www.google.com/search?q=amusing+newspaper+headlines&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS625US625&espv=2&biw=1680&bih=925&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CBwQsARqFQoTCK3PnPS9ycgCFQarHgodyuAFbA

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

sb wrote:

My favorite was a headline I saw: "Death of man found with knife in back ruled suspicious"

Not just another backscratcher accident?

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

DaveMM wrote:

It is a well proven fact that it is almost impossible to proof read your own work, especially soon after writing it.

This is also the reason for some of the really crappy software out there. When I was programming, I discovered that it is very difficult to properly test your own code. A test should be trying to break the program, but it is human nature to try to prove that your program works, and you end up designing test data which will do just that.
"Of course the program will do *this*, that's what I wrote it to do..."

beverett Loc: los angeles

Proofreaders don't edit or change stories. Their job is to make sure the type conforms to the material submitted. Copy editors write headlines and check copy for errors. Unfortunately they are among the first to be laid off as newspapers shrink.

u02bnpx Loc: NW PA

jerryc41 wrote:

I love headlines like that, although I'm sure some are intentional. Newspapers often have intentional amusingly-worded headlines.

http://www.google.com/search?q=amusing+newspaper+headlines&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS625US625&espv=2&biw=1680&bih=925&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CBwQsARqFQoTCK3PnPS9ycgCFQarHgodyuAFbA

The entertainment paper "Variety" has long been known for its creative and humorous headlines. In the 1930s and early 1940s, Hollywood made many Depression-era films about the plight of Dust Bowl people and rural migrant workers generally. (The most famous, of course, was John Ford's "Grapes of Wrath," adapted from John Steinbeck's 1939 novel of the same title.) Many people objected to the unfavorable portrayal of those workers as semi-literate or otherwise deserving of their plight. Small towns held anti-Hollywood demonstrations. "Variety" covered the story in 1935, and it was published under this headline:

STICKS NIX HICK PIX

It's commonly considered the best headline ever written. However, when I taught journalism and film courses, at an appropriate time I would print the headline on the board. The reaction? Many of the students would read it with a quizzical look. They had no idea what it meant.

One Rude Dawg Loc: Athol, ID

We had one locally, a man was found rolled in a tarp buried under his house and they suspected a suicide. A good trick to try and frame someone if you could pull it off. Seems that society is dumbing down, don't know if we can stay ahead of it at the rate we are going. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

Most of the big publishers have gotten rid of proofreading, both for grammar and spelling, and for fact/technical checking. James Patterson is probably the best-selling junk author in the world, but his police protagonists are running around San Francisco, with their fingers on the triggers of their Glocks, while "they flick the safety off" on their Glocks.

dragonswing Loc: Pa

DaveMM wrote:

It is a well proven fact that it is almost impossible to proof read your own work, especially soon after writing it.

In one of my college English courses, we were told to proof read by reading the sentence backwards.
Spelling mistakes occur but what makes me irritated is that many people do not care. I am tired of hearing "well, you know what I meant". Some spelling errors will change the entire sentence meaning. And please don't tell me someone doesn't know the difference of when to use "write" vs "right".

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

These are all examples of why I quit teaching English after forty years. I was afraid I'd bang my head against the wall one too many times--some think I already did.

Now I just cringe when I see glaring errors on this and other websites; I came to realize I can't mark on my screen with a red pen.

Jackel Loc: California

Sounds like an english translation of a German statement. Ich habe im Kleideschrank Schere gefunden, with the verb at the very end of the sentence.

American humorist, Mark Twain's "The Awful German Language" essay, made fun of the many complexities and seemingly contradictory rules of German grammar. In one humorous statement he suggested one could listen to a politician speak for five minutes, and only when the speaker ended his speech would you know what he was talking about when you finally discovered the verb on the very end.

Also, Mark Twain discussed the confusion of using the gender-related articles Der for male, Die for female, and Das for neuter.

Twain wrote: "Every noun has a gender, and there is no sense or system in distribution; so the gender of each must be learned separately and by heart. There is no other way. To do this one has to have a memory like a memorandum-book. In German, a young lady has no sex...Das, while a turnip has... Die. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Jackel wrote:

Sounds like an english translation of a German sta... (show quote)

Yeah, German grammar is the pits... They have the spelling down to a fine art, however! None of this crap about "i before e except after c, or when there's an r in the month". IE is *always* pronounced, EEEE, and EI is *always* eye. Once you learn the basic rules of spelling, you can read anything, and know that you are pronouncing it right. Might not understand it, but any German speakers out there listening should know exactly what you mean.

I was asked to do a German reading in church last year, when our German member was sick. I was given about 20 minutes to scan it, but Hans was able to understand exactly what I was saying when he heard the recording.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

NeilL wrote:

Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and... (show quote)

Imagine someone actually looking over this stuff before press time - wouldn't that be something special.

beverett Loc: los angeles

Los-Angeles-Shooter wrote:

Most of the big publishers have gotten rid of proofreading, both for grammar and spelling, and for fact/technical checking. James Patterson is probably the best-selling junk author in the world, but his police protagonists are running around San Francisco, with their fingers on the triggers of their Glocks, while "they flick the safety off" on their Glocks.

Proofreaders went out with the Linotype. Before computers, a writer's copy would be typeset in lead. The resulting "galley" or galleys would then be inked and printed. The writer's original manuscript, along with the galleys, would be sent to a proofreader, whose job it was to make sure the typeset matched the manuscript--"proof" that the typesetter had done a proper job. Errors--and there were usually a few--would be marked on the proof and sent back to the typesetter for correction.

Proofreaders were not responsible for pointing out errors of fact, grammar, spelling or logic. Those tasks were and still are the job of editors, who also write newspaper headlines.

Bottom line: because computers eliminated the need for "proofs," there are no longer "proofreaders."