Whoops
January 30th, 2011 at 10:00 am by David Farrar
Rather unfortunate that a story about how new teachers plan to inspire their kids, has a spelling mistake in the headline.
We all make typos (esp me), but this isn’t a typo but an actual lack of knowledge as to how role model should be spelt. I hasten to add that the mistake would not be Megan Reed’s (the author), but almost certainly a sub-editor. Ms Reed actually spells role model correctly in the body of the article.
I wonder if the headline is wrong in the print edition also?
Tags: SST
January 30th, 2011 at 10:03 am
I wonder if the headline is wrong in the print edition also?
Yup.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 10:07 am
You know I think it’s just a lame attempt at a pun. A roll being what teachers use to mark attendance…
Probably a reminder to the editors that puns in headlines are best left for stories about celebrities and politicians.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 10:10 am
Hah, spellcheck can’t save you if the mistake is also a word. That requires actual competence in the English language. Not the silliest mistake I’ve seen in print, there was a columnist once who seriously thought “prima donna” was “pre-Madonna”.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 10:14 am
So Toti (SFNS) West thinks that promoting a primitive and violent culture is a path to leadership and inspiration?
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 10:31 am
No, they got it wrong. They’ve fixed it on Stuff.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 10:44 am
We all knew what it meant didnt we, thats the modern language measure int it. muppetts masquerading as journalists again.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 10:58 am
There was a left wing journalist who thought manual labour was a Mexican.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 11:02 am
I assumed it was intentional, as in “school roll”.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 11:07 am
This is probably NOT the fault of the journalist: they do not write the headlines. That job goes to the sub-editors behind the scenes. One of them will have a very red face today.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 11:08 am
Elsewhere in the paper is a full page advertisement put in by the PTPA. They call themselves the PPTA but we all know them as the Paid Teachers’ Propaganda Association.
Vote:If one places a full page advertisement in the SST fawning journalism becomes your entitlement.
January 30th, 2011 at 11:34 am
No. Newspapers in New Zealand do not work that way. PPTA-fawning journalism comes entirely from addle-headed journalists. The PPTA does not need to offer bribes to the media companies to get this.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 11:34 am
This thread is a surprise. I tend towards pedantry myself over issues of grammar and spelling (despite my own frequent lapses), but this thread is a few steps too far – even for me.
There is a clear convention towards punning headlines; especially in tabloids (which is what the SST has become). I assumed that this headline was deliberate and cannot see any indication to the contrary. The wording doesn’t seem to have been corrected on Stuff (as at 1130) which suggests that the spelling was an intentional (if rather lame) pun that has eluded some of the sharp minds on this blog.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
I think it is a pun – the same paper headlines Don Nicolson’s column “Why wool should chute for the stars”.
But it’s a reflection on contemporary standards of spelling and language that we can’t be sure.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
The article goes on about how one of the ‘interns’ is unhappy with the pay.
Vote:For Crying Out Bloody Loud!…. The pay rates were for all to see, right from the start and they actually look bloody good for a know nothing newbie. Perfect PPTA useful idiot.
January 30th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
I thought I read recently that teacher’s pay starts out at $52,000 or approx ? Bloody good to me.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
The industry is littered with illiterate journalists. Shame on the sub-editor and corrector for not spotting the mistake.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
Exactly Manolo – it’s still entertaining though!
Recently enjoyed a TV3 news-bimbo pronounce “epitome” as “epi-toam”, and TVNZ man-bimbo Rawdon Christie dribbling on about “underground earthquakes”…pathetic, but funny!
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Even though folk often know the different meaning, it is very easy to incorrectly write words that are homonyms. This is especially the case when working or typing quickly. Common examples include there/their, your/you’re, here/hear, no/know, etc.
Journalists and teachers do themselves no favours when these sorts of mistakes are in public view.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
You thought wrong, Paulus.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
It is a nerve-Wracking role…. so two errors
racking is the process of draining the clear beer from the lees; maybe that’s what the leader writer had been doing
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 6:25 pm
It might be a pun but in any event it’s well known that headlines are written by the sub-editor or the editor and very rarely by the person who wrote the article.
If anyone is interested I can recommend this most excellent and funny book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stick-Up-Your-Punter-Newspaper/dp/0671017829
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 7:31 pm
It the paper it’s much more obviously intended as some sort of pun. It’s a large front-of-section banner headline over the picture of that Maori holding the weapon.
So it’s a bit of a “whoosh” for the grammar nazis. But yeah, it’s a pretty useless pun.
Vote:January 30th, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Role out the barrel. There speeling suks.
Vote:Must be a teaching problem
January 30th, 2011 at 10:38 pm
The worst thing about this lazy article was the inarticulate doofus, former head boy of Hamilton Boys’, who has been appointed to St Paul’s. Both headmasters should be wondering where they went wrong, even if he can teach kapa haka.
Vote: