[kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint
Andrea Bohnstedt
andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com
Tue Oct 11 16:15:10 EAT 2011
Nah. I'm just letting my inner copy editor run wild.
It was also a reminder to look up 'transitive verb' :)
On 11 October 2011 16:27, Harry Delano <harry at comtelsys.co.ke> wrote:
> **
> Andrea,
>
> Robert meant to say, "you are digressing", in his earlier email. Hope you
> won't read
> offense into it...
>
> Harry
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke[mailto:
> kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] *On Behalf Of
> *robert yawe
> *Sent:* Tuesday, October 11, 2011 3:18 PM
> *To:* harry at comtelsys.co.ke
>
> *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint
>
> Andrea,
>
> You are disgracing, what I was responding to was your issue that suggested
> that a jobless graduate was inferior to an employed one.
>
> I concur with you on the issue of having the senior editors educate the
> newbies, what could be done in my outsourcing model would be to deduct a
> certain amount for every error picked up further ahead in the chain,
>
> "hit where it hurts most"
>
> Many people who jumped on the initial outsourcing "gravy train" got
> shut-down due to the high costs of the errors they made when transcribing,
> some ended up receiving invoices instead of cheques.
>
> Regards
>
> Robert Yawe
> KAY System Technologies Ltd
> Phoenix House, 6th Floor
> P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
> Kenya
>
> Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Andrea Bohnstedt <andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com>
> *To:* robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk>
> *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, 11 October 2011, 10:56
> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint
>
> Robert,
>
> Whether you have your editing outsourced or not is mainly a questions of
> how you structure the contracts - do you have people on the payroll, or do
> you have them work as freelancer. Or you could have them on the payroll, but
> have them work online, so they can work anywhere and don't need to be
> physically present in the office.
>
> However, that's secondary to quality, although I'd argue that for key
> functions, it'd be more useful to have them on payroll and in the office. A
> lot of mistakes occur again and again, so if I were in charge of cleaning up
> copy (and I was milimetres away from applying for that position with the
> Star), I'd try to develop an approach that would teach the journalists to
> avoid them. I'd hunt down anyone who still uses 'greenbuck' and 'curving a
> niche' and who uses 'adorn' wrongly.
>
> My point is: 'English graduate' in itself is not a qualification for good
> copy editing. That requires a lot more than an English degree. It's entirely
> possible that someone with an English degree makes for a good copy editor,
> but it requires a lot more than that.
>
> Andrea
>
> On 11 October 2011 09:36, robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Hi Andrea,
>
> What is outsourcing if not sending out what has been standardised, as some
> have mentioned that it is becoming too expensive to hire editors why not
> outsource the same.
>
> A jobless language graduate is no different from an employed language
> graduate, the graduate is jobless because the media houses cannot afford to
> pay them to sit in the office to work so why not apply technology.
>
> That graduate sitting in Chepalungu can go to Pasha centre every evening
> after tending the firm or teaching at the local primary school log onto the
> web and proof read articles due for publishing. At 500/- per article the
> media house will spend 15,000/-, no pension or medical expenses, no desk
> space required, no tea at 10 and 4, one less supervisor, our food security
> will have moved a step forward, the slums in Nairobi will grow that much
> slower, the local school will have another teacher thus reducing the
> teacher/student ratio and last and least you and I will be less stressed by
> the mediocrity that has manifested in the media.
>
> "Think global but act local"
>
> Robert Yawe
> KAY System Technologies Ltd
> Phoenix House, 6th Floor
> P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
> Kenya
>
> Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Andrea Bohnstedt <andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com>
> *To:* robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk
>
> *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> *Sent:* Monday, 10 October 2011, 10:41
>
> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint
>
> 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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> --
> Andrea Bohnstedt <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/andreabohnstedt>
> Publisher
> +254 720 960 322
>
> www.ratio-magazine.com
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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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> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
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> 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
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>
> --
> Andrea Bohnstedt <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/andreabohnstedt>
> Publisher
> +254 720 960 322
>
> www.ratio-magazine.com
> Find/post East Africa careers<http://www.ratio-magazine.com/careers/index.php>
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> 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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Publisher
+254 720 960 322
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