Don't Always Blame This On The Journalist

Image by Glenn Carstens-Peters

I grimace when I spot a typo, a grammatical mistake or another kind of error in my published work. Of course, the eagle-eyed amongst you will probably spot one or two in this newsletter, and I can just about live with that. But it's not just my own errors that can really erk me. Recently one of my case studies spotted that 10 years had been shaved her age. I was sure I'd included her correct age. I checked the filed copy. I had. Phew. In another piece the owner of a company grumbled that his company was named incorrectly. Mortified, I checked. Again the slip up hadn't been my fault. I was bewildered that somehow errors had somehow actually been injected into my copy. Of course I emailed the editor who apologised and the mistakes were rectified.

I just wanted to point this out for the next time you're emailing a journalist about an error in an article because there's a very strong chance it's not their fault (unless you know they're the chief writer, sub and editor, and then it's down to the fact that they're simply understaffed).

I don't mind people emailing when they've spotted an error but don't assume it's down to the journalist. And remember, journalists generally don't write headlines. Maybe that's a whole other newsletter.

Thanks for reading.

Susie