"A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader, and from the reader the writer learns."
Readers point out errors that made it to print
If only all writers and editors read their prose aloud, they could catch most of the mistakes, Gary Gilson says.
By Gary Gilson
September 2, 2023 at 1:00PM
That quote, from P.L. Travers, creator of the "Mary Poppins" series, appeared in my email inbox as a thought for the day. The source, wordsmith.org, explores the roots and meaning of a word a day.
Readers of this column keep sending me examples of language that either delights or appalls them.
Today ... appalls. To wit, this Associated Press abomination in a story about the Tuskegee Airmen, who were American Black pilots in World War II:
"Wayne Lusardi, Michigan's maritime archaeologist, helped guide the 1,200-pound mussel-encrusted engine from a Tuskegee fighter plane that crashed in 1944 into a chemical solution."
Three readers pounced.
Richard Burt: "I've never heard of a plane crashing into a chemical solution."
Don Michaels: "Must have been a very polluted area of the Atlantic Ocean."
Craig Wiester: "You can have some fun with your colleagues with that one!"
Yes, it's fun to mock such an error. But it's no fun to be assaulted daily, as we are, with the same error coming at us from all angles of all media.
What the writer meant was this: "Wayne Lusardi, Michigan's maritime archaeologist, helped guide into a chemical solution the 1,200-pound mussel-encrusted engine from a Tuskegee fighter plane that crashed in 1944."
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If only — if only — the writer had read the sentence aloud before submitting it, and if only an editor had done the same before approving it, the error could have been avoided, and the reader spared.
And since we are talking about things that happen in an ocean, consider this doozy:
"After swimming from Cuba to Key West at age 74, Dr. Sanjay Gupta asks Diana Nyad how she's staying fit into her 70s."
Sanjay Gupta, CNN's resident doctor, is 53, not 64, and we don't know if he's much of a swimmer. Diana Nyad, 74, is a world-famous long-distance swimmer.
Easy fix: "After Diana Nyad swam from Cuba to Key West at the age of 74, Sanjay Gupta asked her how she stays fit."
Gilson conducts writing workshops online. He can be reached through www.writebetterwithgary.com.
about the writer
Gary Gilson
Pioneering surgeon has run afoul of Fairview Health Services, though, which suspended his hospital privileges amid an investigation of his patient care.
