Wordblog

Journalism in a changing world

Archive for the ‘Language’ Category

Do the math(s)

By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Oct 18th, 2007

A story in the Guardian headlined “Condi’s party surprise cost Britain $10,000″ ends with a quote from a British official: “There were 111 people there - some of them the most influential Americans in the administration. Do the math - it’s good value for money.”
Apart from the evidence that the British official has gone native [...]



Waging war on the icon crisis

By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Aug 13th, 2007

David Marsh, editor of the Guardian style guide, can, I have decided after a few minutes thought, be described as an iconoclast — in the nicest possible way. He sets about the overuse of the word icon to describe everything from Jordan to record covers and Vodemort with all the zeal of William Dowsing who [...]



Vocabulary crisis hits BBC!

By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Jul 26th, 2007

 Alistair Burnett, editor of the BBC’s World Tonight, has a good post on the overuse of the word crisis by journalists. On The Editors Blog he writes:
One of the values BBC journalism puts great emphasis on trying to live up to is accuracy. On top of that, language is the most basic of tools for [...]



On the internet 1980 is pre-history

By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Jan 29th, 2007

It often seems that history began some time in the early 1990s. While the internet has given us unprecedented free access to information, it is not good for the facts and opinion that give us the longer perspective.
From the desktop, the 1980s seems like the dark ages. So it is disturbing that libraries are under [...]



The language of reporting the Ipswich murders

By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Dec 19th, 2006

Use of the word “prostitute” in coverage of the Ipswich murders has come in for predictable complaints from those who felt that “sex workers” was the more appropriate term. Prostitute is an uncomfortable description to apply to any woman but in context of events in the Suffolk town it had a necessary precision.
Not only does [...]



BBC not to follow NBC is describing Iraq conflict as ‘civil war’

By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Nov 29th, 2006

The BBC is not following NBC in describing the conflict in Iraq as “civil war”. The fighting there, says Jon Williams, the BBC’s word new editor, “defies simple categorisation”.
He writes in the broadcaster’s Editors blog that Harvard professor Monica Toft believes Iraq meets all six of the objective criteria she has identified as being shared [...]



News from the edge of the universe

By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Oct 4th, 2006

Job titles at the BBC sometimes seem to come from the realms of science fiction. The Controller of Knowledge is clearly a sentient organism controlling the universe from somewhere on the outer spiral of the galaxy.
Not really, it’s Glenwyn Benson.
That is her role in the newly formed BBC Vision division. And what will that entail? [...]



A matter of style

By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Sep 7th, 2006

A lifetime in journalism has drummed into me a belief that a consistent style in writing is important. One of those areas is how we name people. The traditional British newspaper approach has been to give people’s full names at first use, eg John Smith, and afterwards Mr Smith. The exceptions are sportspeople, entertainers and [...]



‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ may have moved to India

By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Jul 31st, 2006

Since restarting Wordblog a month-and-a-half ago I have become increasing aware of the lack of a sub-editor. However long I spend reading copy, I find huge errors of grammar, punctuation and spelling creeping in. Too often, what I intended to say is less clear when read a few days later.
On the whole bloggers are too [...]



The things you hear on the BBC!

By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Jul 19th, 2006

Sometimes radio news items are surreal. Did they really say that? you ask. Amit Chaudhuri did. His verse on mishearing the BBC in last Sunday’s Observer was the funniest thing in the paper.