[kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint

Mon Oct 10 10:41:49 EAT 2011

What Catherine said. Editing, proofreading, subbing require skill and
experience and knowledge - it's *not* something you can just farm out to
jobless graduates.

On 10 October 2011 10:16, Catherine Adeya <elizaslider at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I think there is a wrong impression that a Journalism graduate is best
> suited to edit a paper. You may be better off with an English major
> graduate, Linguistics graduate and Information Sciences (Publishing Major)
> graduate. The IS course at MU had a renowned editing course in the '80s with
> the late Jonathan Kariara. I do not know how they are doing now. I remember
> him teaching an editing class and emphasizing the importance of good
> grammar, good English and simplicity especially when communicating to the
> wider market. I remember "Class, it is easier to say "walk" rather than
> "perambulate" even though they mean the same thing.  He gave an example of
> certain words that you must be extremely careful about when editing...they
> are words that you must counter-check and DO NOT AT ANY COST rely on  your
> computer (the class already had experience in this).
>
> Let me give you an example of one of those words and forgive me as I have
> no intention to be vulgar. Two years ago I was in Dar and I was reading
> their top local paper. The heading in one of the lead stories was 'President
> opens a Pubic library'......I can't remember whether it was a library or
> what but you know the word I am referring to. I actually drew the attention
> of someone I knew to this major error and she promised to get in touch with
> the editor. My point is such words on a spell-checker will be correct, it
> requires as well trained eye to still sweep over the document and pick words
> like this. Even in the the Kenyan case we lack this seriously yet the
> qualified people are there. I am glad this topic has come up because
> sometimes I just put the paper aside as I am horrified at the level of
> grammar and editorial mistakes. The same happens with the news that is
> scrolled during News broadcasts....and while I am at that... some of the
> Opinion questions are SO ABSURD and even worse they are  grammatically
> wrong...wrong...wrong....
>
> Enough said....
>
> Nyaki
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Victor Bwire <victor at article19.org>
> *To:* elizaslider at yahoo.com
>
> *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, October 4, 2011 11:29 PM
>
> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint
>
> Infact it is the ICT use that is the cause of the problem- given the little
> ICT literacy by some of our newsrooms- most of our sub editors learn
> computer by on job-rarely able to master command of the computer functions-
> including grammer, spell checks-it will continue happening
>
>
>
> Previously, we used to print hard copies of the articles for editing
> manually with red pens- thus very few mistakes- but now
>
> Many of journalism courses do not include introduction to computer lessons-
> so how will the graduates know how to use them
>
>
>
> Who regulates journalism training or draws the course or approves the same
> in the country anyway- if you even happen to see some course outlines
> offered in some of the colleges and universities offering journalism
> including Government ones- you will feel sorry
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: kictanet-bounces+victor=article19.org at lists.kictanet.or.ke[kictanet-bounces+victor=
> article19.org at lists.kictanet.or.ke] on behalf of james ratemo [
> jratemo at gmail.com]
> Sent: 04 October 2011 21:16
> To: Victor Bwire
> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint
>
> Bwana PS what are you insinuating? We open our newsrooms fro the so called
> English majors? Some of them are in the newsrooms already...maybe they are
> sleeping on the job...my opinion
>
> On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 11:11 PM, <bitange at jambo.co.ke<mailto:
> bitange at jambo.co.ke>> wrote:
> All of today's newspapers had several grammatical errors.  At this time and
> age of ICT, is it not too embarrasing to have such errors?  We have
> thousands of English majors without jobs.  It is time for media to be
> thorough in what they do by utilizing our many graduates without jobs.  As a
> Kenyan I get embarrased to see such errors.
>
> Ndemo.
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry®
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga at hotmail.com<mailto:ggithaiga at hotmail.com>>
> Sender: kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:
> jambo.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2011 13:32:57
> To: <bitange at jambo.co.ke<mailto:bitange at jambo.co.ke>>
> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>>
> Subject: [kictanet] GSMA: Calls will remain high between African countries
>
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for
> people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
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> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
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> --
> James Ratemo
> Online Sub-editor/ICT reporter
> Nation Media Group,
> P.O Box 49010-00100,
> Nairobi
> Cell Phone: 0724960649 OR 0731960649
> Email: jratemo at ke.nationmedia.com<mailto:
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for
> people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for
> people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>

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