TWO types of writers upset editors:
those who spend hours worrying
whether Tokio is spelt with an i or a y
and those who care nothing for
consistency, grammar or punctuation.
The latter group is capable of spelling
Rumania three different ways in an
article and as for cantaloup or
card-index used as a verb they know
not neither do they care.
Then there are people who worry that
their lack of formal education will inhibit
their attempts to earn a living from
writing. We are often asked to provide
a list of reference books to help these
people and recently two new ones have
appeared which we are happy to
recommend.
The most recent is The Times Style and
Usage Guide compiled by editorial
executive Tim Austin and published by
HarperCollins. Would you, for example,
give capital letters to Royal Family, are
you confident about assure and ensure
or affect and effect? How many times do
you think that John Betjeman�s name
has been mis-spelt and do you know
that Biro is a trade name and should
have a capital? Even cricket followers
get Lord's wrong and Lytham St.
Anne�s should also have an
apostrophe.
Yangtze takes a z not an s and Austin
has persuaded The Times to spell
connection with a ct in the middle and
not with an x. You can appreciate that a
style book is valuable for writers and is
designed to eliminate grammatical
errors, to keep up with fashion and to
ensure consistency.
Shortly before Austin arrived in Fleet
Street as a sub editor on The Daily
Telegraph that paper used to ban
perambulator, maidservant and blaze.
It took only a few weeks to drag them
into the 20th century but it still claimed
that only Malays can run amok. The
Times doesn't care who runs amok as
long as it is not spelt amock or amuck.
You would think that a simple word like
verger has no traps.
Not so. At St Paul�s and Winchester
cathedrals he is a virger. I collect style
books rather like some golfers collect
putters � in the hope that the perfect
one will arrive. Austin�s effort is one of
the best I�ve seen � almost (but not
quite) on a par with The Oxford
Dictionary for Writers and Editors which
has been my companion for 20 years.
Getting down to basics I recently came
across a slim volume entitled: Mend
Your English. It is written by Ian-Bruton
Simmonds, a South African, who told me
that he put it together originally to help
Zulus |
The author is a campaigner for the
preservation of the Queen�s English.
Like many, he would like to see the BBC
doing more to uphold standards, but
outside of Radios 3 and 4 I think he is
facing a losing battle. His book wages
war on those tired metaphors and
similes.
Hold our heads high, best foot forward,
spill the beans, put our foot down,
ground to a halt. etc. I cannot help
feeling that any Zulu who mastered this
little volume would be better prepared
than the announcers we have for
children�s TV programmes.
It�s easy to be pedantic and to spend
useless hours on semantics but every
writer is a guardian of our language
and if you cannot get on with Fowler or
Gowers try Bruton-Simmonds. The sub
title for the book is: What We Should
Have Been Taught At Primary School.
Now to something of a master class:
The Times Writer�s Guide.
This is more than a quick reference
book. This is a delight for anybody
interested in words. It was not written
by a journalist or an academic but by 22
Writers' Forum Rupert Murdoch�s late
marketing manager for The Sun and The
Sunday Times. Strewth, you might say,
and that would be appropriate for he
was also an Australian.
And a polymath, too. Poet, painter and
author. We have mentioned this book
before and make no excuses for
mentioning it again. All three books
should be required reading by
advertising copywriters who draft
display advertisements for jobs (display
vacancies in their circumlocutory jargon)
which appear in the broadsheets.
These examples of poor English are far
worse than anything perpetrated by
the BBC. I read one recently which
changed tenses three times and mood
twice in 200 words. All it needed to say
was International oil company seeks
qualified and experienced finance
director. All the nonsense about he or
she will have and he or she will be etc.
merely cost the advertiser another
�8,000 and marked the author down as illiterate.
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