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Reply 20
The Grauniad likes to make a lot of typos too.
Reply 21
No.
Reply 22
tbh such a busy broadcaster shouldnt really have to worry about typos, its the news that counts, and lets be honest they do deliever the news.....


honestly
Reply 23
Original post by kka25
On a different note, never thought of writing to a company about a typo they made :smile:


nto relly :wink:
Original post by DonJuan
Another day, another story, another typo! I love reading the BBC News website, but over the last few years it has become littered with typos. Does anyone read through these stories before they are posted? Today the story about the cruise ship in Italy has a picture with the caption:
'The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 3,2000 passengers when it ran aground off the Italian coast'.
Further down the video is captioned:
'Cabin steward Deodato Ordona says the ship suddenly began to tlt.'
They're so glaringly obvious that it's shocking that the author him/herself didn't catch them regardless of whether an editor read through it before it was posted.
I have seen worse than these, I wish I had a log. The majority of errors have been in the main article, not the caption. Sometimes its not just spelling or repetition of a word; I have seen mangled sentences that are so bad there is literally no way the author could have read over it and missed it.
Who else is disgusted by not only these typos but the carelessness behind the scenes that they are so clearly a sign of?
EDIT: Link to the article here.
Also, another typo: But if the party, which has just one MP on Scotland, pushes too hard, it risks increasing support for independence, through accusations of a "London/Tory fix". (Link here.)


Yeah and i am disgusted with your slang.

Now come on really? everyone makes mistakes, get a life mate!
Reply 25
There are much more important things to get my breeks in a fankle about tbh. I think that's probably a no then.

[ s] proofreadbeforeposting[ /s]
Reply 26
I hear you all loud and clear! It is just me!
Reply 27
I wouldn't mind if it weren't for the fact they get paid a tonne of money for being so unprofessional... I'm sure the bbc bosses turned many applicants away for mere typo's in their application or friend references...
Reply 28
Original post by DonJuan
Saying 'disgusted' was of course hyperbole, but it got people talking. What really annoys me are the typos that show that the author literally has not read it through even once. (For example, '3,2000', that just sticks out like a sore thumb.) We get taught from the age of five to read our own work before handing it in and yet the professionals are not doing this!
Countless psychological experiments have shown that competent and experienced readers miss typos very easily. Proof-reading requires a particular frame of mind, and would require hiring some professional proof readers (or train the writers to professional proof-read). It's undoubtedly easier and cheaper just to rely on readers to point out the typos.
Reply 29
Original post by GunnerBill
The BC news website is crap. It's not the typos but the lack of good grammar. For example headlines more often than not refer to things like:

"Italy Cruise Ship Capsizes" When it should be "Italian Cruise ship Capsizes" or "Cruise Ship Capsizes off Italy"

I wrote to them and the excuse was it saves space for mobile users. Which is rubbish because in many cases there is virtually no difference in the length of the title. They are dumbing down to compete with Sky.
Can you actually give us an example of a headline from the BBC which contains the same information but can be written 'better' using the same number of characters (or less characters)? Copy editors have this thing down to an art, so I'd be surprised if you can find one quickly.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 30
Original post by Kolya
Can you actually give us an example of a headline from the BBC which contains the same information but can be written 'better' using the same number of characters (or less characters)? Copy editors have this thing down to an art, so I'd be surprised if you can find one quickly.




As you can see the "Italy cruise ship.." headline is much shorter than the "Afghan women" one above.

They could have easily used "Italian..." instead. They are just lazy slobs.

That took me about 20 seconds to find, lol :biggrin:
Reply 31
Original post by GunnerBill


As you can see the "Italy cruise ship.." headline is much shorter than the "Afghan women" one above. Too lazy to preview your posts and make sure they appear properly? :rofl:

GunnerBill
They could have easily used "Italian..." instead. They are just lazy slobs.
'Italian' is longer than 'Italy'. Conserving characters is important for mobile devices. There's nothing lazy about that. On the contrary, it involves making an extra effort to make the content easy for mobile users to read.
You must lead a pretty sad life if you get upset by typos on the state TV's propaganda broadcasts!
It's worse on the Daily Mail website.
Reply 34
Original post by Kolya
Too lazy to preview your posts and make sure they appear properly? :rofl:

'Italian' is longer than 'Italy'. Conserving characters is important for mobile devices. There's nothing lazy about that. On the contrary, it involves making an extra effort to make the content easy for mobile users to read.


Appear properly, WTF are you talking about?

2 extra characters? Nonesense. If the "Afghan women" headline is OK for mobile devices then surely they could use proper grammar for the "Italy" one.
Reply 35
Original post by el scampio
You must lead a pretty sad life if you get upset by typos on the state TV's propaganda broadcasts!


lol, quite possibly.
Reply 36
Original post by GunnerBill
2 extra characters? Nonesense. If the "Afghan women" headline is OK for mobile devices then surely they could use proper grammar for the "Italy" one.
It isn't OK for mobile devices. It doesn't even appear properly on the official news app on my large phone. The headline wasn't done by an experienced copy editor, that's for sure. That headline - as well as preferring "Italian" to "Italy" - are poor choices given the purpose of the writing.
(edited 12 years ago)
Oh God won't someone please think of the children!!!
Reply 38
Considering they report on news as it happens, I would let it slide.
Quite frankly I don't spend my life looking for typos on news channels, or even watching news channels, so it makes no difference to me.
Reply 39
Call me pedantic, but this does matter. There are so many typos and grammar mistakesin the BBC news that it is often unclear what they are saying. For example, at this webpage, they say the following:

A more inquisitive mind might discover that the Persians had twice before been defeated by the Greeks during two ill-fated invasions, by Darius the Great in 490BC and then his son, Xerxes, in 480BC - for which Alexander's assault was a justified retaliation.

Darius was a Persian, despite what this paragraph implies.

I certainly make typos in my writing, and I am very aware of that, but I am not a BBC journalist; I am a science student. If they are so qualified as to get a position writing for the world's most visited news website, they should be able to write clear English. At least the editors of the website ought to care. I know this is pedantic, but it just amazes me how many mistakes there are. I think school children should get £10 and an internship for every typo or grammar mistake they spot on articles linked from the BBC news front page.

Does anyone know of a blog where I could post links to typos that I spot on the bbc website? These things should be logged like the first poster mentioned. I might set up such a blog when I'm bored. On the other hand, maybe I'll do something I actually ought to do!

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