mr. language grumbler

[calimac]

Can't journalists for respectable newspapers come up with a better opening line than that annoying phrase, "When it comes to ..."? What is the "it" that is coming?

Surely this particular example could have just as easily begun, "Law enforcement officials vocally advocate one particular approach for protecting children on the Internet." Or any number of other ways.

And while we're at it, enough with the "second ... after" gap. Here's a good example: a headline reading "India, the second largest newspaper market after China," which immediately raises the question, "So then what's the first largest one after China?" Of course, on reading the article one finds that the headline actually means "India, the second largest newspaper market in the world (China is the first)" but that's not what it says.

Both of these annoyances were once rare, but they're now very common, and very annoying.

Comments

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

COMMA, COMMA, COMMA --- so many things could be solved by the humble comma!!!!

"The second largest newspaper market, after China" -- simple.

But... it's like people are starting to think that punctuation doesn't matter.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The phrasing has rubbed me sore enough that I still wince at it even with the comma included.

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah.

I was going to add that I think the punctuation problem is one symptom of the fact that the culture is moving toward becoming an oral one again. Literacy is declining -- in terms of mastery of the written forms and actually knowing much about the literary heritage.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Thinking further, I realized that a better phrasing would be: "the largest newspaper market after China," not the second largest with a comma.

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

Ha! You are SO right! Ah, the wonders of copy-editing! ;)