It’s/its a mishmash of errors you should know

From: PATRICK COYNE Glenashley

THE headline on the front page of The Independent on Saturday last week refers.

Someone should do something about the disease that afflicts some of our local journalists – the IT/ IT’S disease.

For people who pride themselves on getting their message across, it’s surprising that they’re prepared to risk that message being meaningless. It’s obvious that they have no idea when to use that little floating comma, and no clue as to its significance.

The great joy of English is the power of its punctuation. It’s amazing that respected writers will gaily sprinkle apostrophes all over a passage of writing, never knowing that its meaning, its clarity, its logic, its flow, and its very authority are thereby sabotaged. It’s a sad reflection on that great, respected corporation, Indefensible Newspapers, Ltd, that many of its journalists have no idea of the apostrophe’s function, its value, or its usage. It’s not just sad, it’s tragic.

It’s time that a knowledge of the word “its” and its origin became a compulsory part of every journalist’s CV. In a word, it’s elementary, my dear journo.

From: SAD JOURNALIST Hillcrest

HOW could you let your slip show so blatantly?

This type of error can be said to reduce journalism to Junk Status. Only the story of the magnificent hump-backed whale may be mighty enough to shoulder this monumental error.

Please watch your step – your readers are sensitive.

From: TREVOR HODGSON Hillcrest

NO! NO! NO!! How can an English language newspaper have as its headline: “KZN shows it’s big heart.”

Please, for the sake of our language, employ a qualified proofreader who has knowledge of English grammar.

Editor’s reply: We apologise for the error in our main headline on the lead story on the front page. I am wholly responsible for introducing the error which happened while making changes to our headline on deadline. We have a hard-working team who do their best every week to produce a highly readable and entertaining paper, in print and online. I am sorry for the mistake.