“A photograph published in the Toronto Sun Friday incorrectly identified a person who has the same name as a dead drug dealer. The photo showed Shawn James, winner of a Harry Jerome Award in 2005 and a social worker with UrbanPromise Toronto, a Christian-based community initiative working with children, youth and single mothers.
“He is very much alive and the error raised concern among the kids he works with at Thistletown Baptist Church.
“James ‘operates an after-school program for children at Kipling and Finch Aves. and he has no criminal background,’ wrote UrbanPromise executive director Brett McBride.
“The story, however, was about the trial for the accused killer of another man named Shawn ‘Juice’ James, slain in 2007. The Sun apologizes for the error.” — Toronto Sun
Thanks for the link Craig. We are using GooseGrade to keep my rampant typos in check; and I use creative punctuation that drives a reader or two of mine around the bend. Only so much my own proof reading can do. And, as you - more than most- are aware, errors are easy to make. They have amazing customer service as well - we had a technical issue with the install over Christmas and they were great at pushing some fixes for it. Love you work Craig, thanks for reading (and hopefully not correcting). Ian.
#1 Posted by Ian Capstick, CJR on Fri 22 Jan 2010 at 07:02 PM
Hey Craig, thanks for the write-up - I'm curious about Bite-Size Edits applicability in professional newsrooms. Any initial thoughts?
#2 Posted by Hugh McGuire, CJR on Mon 25 Jan 2010 at 11:11 AM
Craig, another very good program is PerfectIt. For a one time cost of $90, PerfectIt is downloaded directly to Word. When you're done with an article, you simply click the button and it spits out a report with suggested corrections. As a copywriter and editor, I find this program invaluable.
I appreciate you listing these other programs as well. I will be blogging about this very thing in February at www.TheConfidentCopywriter.com. I'll be happy to highlight your article as the original source of information.
Thanks!
#3 Posted by Victoria Ipri, CJR on Mon 25 Jan 2010 at 06:16 PM
Craig: I'd never heard of any of these. Thanks for the run down, and thanks to the friend at FreelanceSuccess.com who linked to this post so the rest of us were aware of it. As a writer who blogs, I often think I've thoroughly proofread a post only to realize after I've hit the "Publish" button and looked at it again minutes or hours later I missed a typo or two or three - not good for my street cred or ego. I'll definitely consider using one of these in my writing practice, and will suggest that writers I'm working with on a new website do likewise.
Michelle Rafter
WordCount: Freelancing in the Digital Age.
#4 Posted by Michelle Rafter, CJR on Mon 25 Jan 2010 at 08:31 PM
This simple process had me sitting on the edge of my seat, as [ = fowler frowns on this use since it's initially unclear whether "as" is a relative adverb, relative pronoun or conjunction] I was previously unaware anyone had built an application to help readers suggest corrections.
here are three quick profiles of error-prevention or correction technologies or services every journalist should keep on their [ = plural pronoun for singular antecedent] radar.
It turns out [ = "it" is meaningless and serves no purpose (unlike an expletive, which serves through balance inversion to ensure that a subject doesn't overshadow its predicate)] the company behind the corrections widget and underlying service, gooseGrade, was profiled by TechCrunch earlier this year.
Simply put, they [ = plural pronoun for the singular "company"] have created a way for Web sites to crowdsource [??] edits and corrections.
Web site owners can install the gooseGrade widget in order to have an easy, streamlined method for readers to submit proposed [ = "submit proposed" seems redundant] edits or corrections.
It simplifies the corrections process, which [ = a relative pronoun requires an antecedent noun; a demonstrative pronoun would've been better, = "and that"] is a very good thing.
Right now, anyone can add the widget to their [ = plural pronoun for singular antecedent] blog or Web site, and people can also sign up individually to suggest edits and corrections, which [ = a relative pronoun requires an antecedent noun; an absolute construction would've been better, = "a process made easier"] is made easier by the company’s bookmarklet [??].
Rather than pursuing [ = "pursue" since "than" is a relative adverb, equivalent to "it aims to help to a degree exceeding the degree to which it aims to pursue"] a public form of collaborative post-publication editing, this project aims to help writers get...
Your [ = shift to second person from third person] fellow participants can then edit small sections of text.
I asked him if [ = whether] he thinks this model could potentially work in journalism.
And yet the spellcheckers we [ = shift to first person] use every day still manage to miss—and cause—so many typos.
Asonov, who has a Ph.D [ = no closing period in ph.d.]
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