Sunday 5 March 2023

I Don't Think That's The Best Way For Customers To Help...


...but you do you, fella!

H/T: Dave Ward via email

2 comments:

  1. Unfortunate for the interviewee; could he use the reporter responsible?

    While we’ve all produced the occasional typo (and predictive text doesn’t help), you’d think a news site would have someone proof-reading everything, even if it’s just a case of ‘could you take a quick look at this before I put it online?” (Although the Mail doesn’t seem to have got round to it yet).

    I suspect part of the problem is what I have come to call Little Tin God syndrome; a misplaced faith in computers and a subconscious tendency to invest anything seen in type with a spurious authority which makes it less likely that errors will be spotted. A regular experiment with my pupils, asking them to proof-read two essays, one hand-written and one typed, gave them clear evidence of the effect and provided an excellent form of inoculation; perhaps online journalists should try the same thing.



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  2. "Unfortunate for the interviewee; could he use the reporter responsible?"

    Almost certainly!

    "...you’d think a news site would have someone proof-reading everything..."

    I don't think even the authors scan it over before they press 'send'. Otherwise there'd be fewer of these.

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