My editing pet peeve - what's yours?

"While" has been used as a conjunction in the sense of "although" since at least the 15th century. If Spnited had a problem with that, I'm sure he would have said something at the time.

 

And, of course, it's usually right while the other is wrong.

Sorry, piling on, I know.

 

In regards to.

It is in regard to. Or regarding...

Argghhhhh people always write it, and I hate when people call and say I'm calling you in regards too....

arghhh.

 

CNN's news ticker was on a miserable multi-year streak of attributing everything to AP, right down to sunrise times. I'm sure that some lawyer told them to cover their ass by doing it, but it made you wonder whether anyone in the joint was capable of reporting anything.

And this one isn't copy editing as much as careless language, but some ESPN dope dropped about 200 references in the first half of Florida's NIT opener about the Gators being "defending champs." Uh, no.

 

Due to. Johnny Smith didn't miss the game due to an injury, and his team didn't lose due to poor shooting. Because.

Also up there on my list: having a quote broke up into two paragraphs and putting a "he added" attribution in the second graf after there's already a "Smith said" in the first graf. Everyone understands that Smith is still speaking.

 

did I mention working with older guys who never went to school and have no fucking clue that there even is such thing as a style book?

It especially kills me when you point something out, "AP style is (whatever)." Then they respond "I don't like that."

Guess what. I don't like paying taxes, either, but somebody somewhere figured out it is best that I do, so I don't have much choice in the matter.

 

AP quotes aggravate me because they stick the "he said" "she said" in the middle of a fucking sentence.

"I play," Randy Moss said, "when I want to play."

 

All the time. I've vandalized more signs than the Fresh Prince.

 

"Date, time, place."

The first thing I ever learned in journalism was "time, date, place."

 

Wait, you do journalism?

 

I just got on here to type TIME, DATE, PLACE! I must change that 20 times a week, and our desk doesn't even do full-time editing anymore.