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Could be that "31-year-old" was moved from another place and changing the
"1" was missed when they changed the "3" -- it happens to editors, too. :0
I would otherwise agree with your hypothesis, but I don't think that's the
case here. Besides, with an AP sourcing, it may not have been the TV station
at all. My understanding is that if you run something like your story
(http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6620358), you run it the way AP
wrote it. I have this opinion because of the identical stories I see from
time to time, all credited to AP.
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> techwr-l-bounces+bgranat=granatedit -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+bgranat=granatedit -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l
> .com] On Behalf Of neilson -at- windstream -dot- net
> Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 12:30 PM
> To: Techwr-l
> Subject: Automatic editing?
>
> The following paragraph is from an online report on the web page
> of KLTV in Tyler TX (near Dallas).
>
> "Thirty-1-year-old Martin Laguna is charged with conspiracy to
> possess heroin with intent to distribute, plus distribution of
> heroin. He's also charged with possession of a firearm during a
> drug trafficking crime."
>
> Thirty-1 ??? How did they accomplish that? Whaddya bet that as a
> TV station, they're not putting much effort into editing for good
> journalistic writing. So they have a smell-checker that tries to
> apply some AP Style Guide rules: (a) Numbers from 1 to 10 are spelled
> out, and everything else is in digits. (b) Sentences do not begin with
> numbers in digits. Applying both rules at once gives amazing results.
>
> I'm sure it's from automatic editing; no human editor, reporter or
> typist could do something so ridiculous, even if not a native
> speaker of English.
>
> So you saw it here first--the oncoming automation of copy editing.
> As tech writers we tend to regard MS Word's grammar and spelling
> suggestions as occasionally helpful and frequently quite silly.
> We ignore them when we know they're wrong. But the Bulldozer of
> Future Standards is upon us, and we will be crushed by it. We will
> see our finished writing pushed through an automatic Grammar
> Grinder and ruined in the name of improvement, and the result
> will become the new standard.
>
> [Neilson emulates the Grammar Grinder on previous graf:]
> So you were here first. The outcome automates copy editing.
> As technical writers tend to regard Ms. Word's grammar and
> spelling suggestions... [Geez, I gotta stop; my head hurts.]
>
> --Peter Neilson
>
>
>
>
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