You Don't Say: Not everyone got the memo - English grammar, language, usage and journalism blog by John E. McIntyre

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Not everyone got the memo

I pray you, good people, tyro and weather-beaten hack alike, to heed this piece of advice from HeadsUp: The Blog:

When you undertake to report on behalf of the public, you agree in advance to not be the sort of dimbulb who prints everything that comes over the transom.

Context may be useful.

For a fuller expression of maxims by which you might conduct your career as a journalist, the twenty-five commandments from Tim Radford, a former editor at the Guardian, will not steer you onto the rocks.

Posted by John McIntyre at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Comments

I wonder if Mr Radford's Guardian might have just a few readers who don't commute daily on the District Line? I suppose it's even possible (though I don't want to be too dimbulb about this) that some Guardian readers have never heard of Parsons Green - perhaps don't even live in London. Can you imagine that? Weird, eh?

Posted by: Picky | January 24, 2011 5:36 AM

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About John McIntyre

John McIntyre, mild-mannered editor for a great metropolitan newspaper, has fussed over writers’ work, to sporadic expressions of gratitude, for thirty years. He is The Sun’s night content production manager and former head of its copy desk. He also teaches editing at Loyola University Maryland. A former president of the American Copy Editors Society, a native of Kentucky, a graduate of Michigan State and Syracuse, and a moderate prescriptivist, he writes about language, journalism, and arbitrarily chosen topics. If you are inspired by a spirit of contradiction, comment on the posts or write to him at john.mcintyre@baltsun.com.

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