Sports writer looking for Grammar help

My 10 cents are right. That's why it's the most commonly misspelle

 

Funny it is that someone who uses the word "advise" in that sentence could rip on someone's appeal for help with grammar.

 

Maybe he's Canadian. But always amazes me some of the criticism around here. Don't want to help? Then don't.

 

Kind of like someone asking for weight loss suggestions,then having some jerk come in and say "Shit. Put down the forke." Misspelling fork and showing a lack of grace.

 

Here's one that shouldn't drive me nuts, and I probably should just get over it (wait for it), but I can't. And the AP is bad at it.

"Over" is a preposition.

"Smith struck out seven over five innings ..." is grammatically incorrect, I don't care what the AP says.

"The Tigers won three games over the weekend..." is, too.

"through" seven innings ... "during" the weekend.

 

Correct. But one of the battles I've started to give up on. AP makes things difficult on things like this sometimes. If I have time, I still change it, but I don't always. On deadline, there are bigger fish to fry.

 

Just found another that gets under my skin:

"and then" is redundant. Use one or the other.

"Smith hit a single and then took third on a two-base error."

Once again, AP is the biggest culprit.

 

Huh. Haven't seen that one too often.

 

It's amazing how writing skills have diminished over the years. Not referring to anyone here, but more as frustrations of the job. Had a writer in the newsroom recently ask me if he needed to use "affect" or "effect" in a sentence. How do you get this far in a writing industry without knowing the difference?

 

Nah. It has always been the case. It's why we need editors who are paid to know these things.

 

The reason is quite simple: Real journalists are moving on to bigger and better jobs because newspapers are dying and newsrooms are shrinking. So publishers and managing editors are forced to hire many without journalism degrees, and many don't know how to complete a sentence.

We no longer have editors who are paid to know these things, in many instances. We didn't even replace our managing editor.

That's the case in our shop.

Funny, but our main reporter just asked me if he should use "affect" or "effect."