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Watch for the basics and intricacies

A headline across six columns some time ago left me nonplussed. It read: “Chilling sequence from Douglas Devananda’s outer office shows nonplussed attacker.” The accompanying text said: “The suicide bomber … looked unperturbed … The images captured by the monitoring cameras … showed the young woman … in full control of herself ….” That led me to wonder whether the person who gave the bright strapline was nonplussed — meaning “perplexed, uncertain.”

As I have said again and again in these columns, errors are part of newspapers — no newspaper is blemishless. Speed is the essence of this profession — in writing, in editing, in page processing. At each of these stages the eye is on the clock, to beat the deadlines. And the journalists, being only human, do trip sometimes. But the readers look only at the final product and find the errors jarring, irritating.

Those are errors of omission. What I cited in the first paragraph was an error of commission. Such instances are not rare — though not always so glaring — showing an inadequate grasp of the intricacies of the English language. These cannot be waved away as the results of hurry. But it is not confined to Indian newspapers. Ian Mayes, who served many years as Readers’ Editor of The Guardian, told me that a large number of messages he received related to mistakes of language. These were not taken for the “Corrections” column, but were dealt with internally — a practice we also have adopted.

What follows is a selection from the pages of The Hindu done over a period of time. This is not exhaustive and there may be more interesting ones that have not come to my attention. Readers who spot them can help me increase my collection.

There are some favourite expressions of journalists that keep recurring despite their absurdity. One comes across “pre-planned” (can there be post-planning?), “future plans”, “past precedents”, “future prospects”. Also seen are “wee hours” (see dictionary for wee), “at around 4 p.m” (a contradiction — at is specific, around is approximate), “allegedly died of burns”, “make both ends meet”, “major, important milestone” (milestone is an important or significant event or development).

This was recently picked up from a report: “The kit has given the razor’s edge to the awareness-to-action campaigns …” What was needed here was “given an edge”; “on the razor’s edge” means a difficult or precarious position.

“Razed” means “completely destroyed”. But a heading read “Portion of commercial building razed down”. The same usage appeared in the text also. Another headline was, “more greener.”

From these general observations, to specific points raised by readers. A. Narayanan of Chennai, always ready to spot language errors, cites a headline, “Galore are roadblocks …” Is this usage correct, he asks. Anything in large numbers is galore, and the heading should have been, “roadblocks galore”. He also points out another frequent wrong usage, “first come, first serve.” It should be “served”; the mistake can be seen everywhere, not in newspapers alone.

An instance of a misleading (not wrong) headline is cited by Dr. D.R. Mohan Raj (Sultan Qaboos University, Al Khod, Sultanate of Oman). A strapline read, “35% of drugs made in India no better than talcum powder?” The third paragraph of the report said WHO [World Health Organisation], to which this statistic had been attributed, had denied making any such statement. Most readers would hardly have noticed this and would have gone by the heading, says the reader. He adds that putting a question mark does not make it any less irresponsible.

Among the regular contributors to my collection, V. Pichumani (Chennai) deserves special mention. From the time this work started (March 1, 2006) there has been no day he has not called to point out a few errors in the day’s paper. Not all of them get into the corrections list — but more than a hundred have, besides a few on regional pages — many are forwarded to the people concerned. Here is one from his large number of catches: “If the tax was not detected at source …”

Though not so frequent, Sampath S. Chakravarti (Ridgefield, CT, US) makes unique contributions. His speciality is names of officials and he cites official websites to point out errors in names published in the paper. That makes me wonder how a local reporter does not get the name correct but a pair of eyes on the other side of the world spots the fault.

B. Theodore (Narsapur) has a distinctive style — a few lines on a postcard always. His corrections are significant. What is “cleansing catharsis” which he saw in the paper, he asks. Catharsis is a cleansing process.

K.R. Menon (Thiruvananthapuram) has figured in these columns for his punctiliousness in relation to style. He pounces on loose expressions (not sparing the editorials.) He found this expression in a news report, “… it be informed to the media” jarring. Inform is a transitive verb with a direct subject and is often misused. It should be, inform the media of.

M. Khader Mohideen (Chennai) waits to collect enough mistakes to fill one inland letter before he sends it across, and so is not frequent with his offerings. “There are about 102 students,” “about eight persons,” “Lok Sabha M.P.” are some picked up by him. A rule in editing is that a sentence should not begin with a figure. To get around that sometimes ludicrous constructions are resorted to.

I will have to carry a poisonous snake to escape a fine, says Harihara Subramanian V. (Thiruvananthapuram) after reading a sentence in the paper, “Motorists driving vehicles without break lights … and vipers will be fined.” He wishes to see The Hindu of yore.

The sentence that follows will need some excavation. “Prof. Rao, who undertook deep-sea excavations near Dwaraka, discovered submerged parts of the town where Krishna lived when he was director of the National Institute of Oceanography.” (R.T. Kaushik, Bangalore).

Dr. K.C. Rajaraman (Vallampadugai, Tamil Nadu), an occasional contributor to my collection, cites these among others: “The High Court … held that the allottees were entitled to pay interest …” (liable).

This is only a random selection from what readers have noted. There is more, and more will come, for there is hardly any follow-up action when these are pointed out — not to speak of preventive action.

readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

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