Wednesday 4 August 2010

Simon Heffer's back on Telegraph style patrol

Paul Waugh at the Evening Standard has got hold of one of Simon Heffer's brilliant missives to Telegraph journalists, highlighting their copy errors, and has published it on his blog.
For example, Heffer (pictured) tells the hacks: "Homophones remain abundant and show up the writer and the newspaper or website. We are quality media, and quality media do not make mistakes such as these: “the luck of the drawer”, “through the kitchen sink”, “through up” “dragging their heals” and “slammed on the breaks”, all of which are clichés that might not be worthy of a piece of elegant writing even if spelt correctly.
"We have also confused Briton and Britain, hanger and hangar, hordes and hoards, peeled and pealed, lightening and lightning, stationery and stationary, principal and principle, peninsula and peninsular, licence and license and, in something of a pile-up, born, borne and bourn. If you are unsure of the meanings of any of these words, look them up before proceeding further."

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