Proofreading Training for Politicians?
At Chapterhouse, we’re considering offering proofreading training to politicians for the coming weeks.
In my constituency of Oxford West (a tight Tory-Lib Dem marginal seat, but with a big Green vote growing by the day), the Tories were the first to put a leaflet through our door. Our Tory MP is Nicola Blackwood, and her flyer seems to be self-published. There’s a proud claim that ‘no public money was used to fund this report’.
But one thing we all know about self-publishers is that they need to use freelance proofreaders and copy-editors to make sure their standards are high.
Among the many achievements listed by Nicola, three stood out for me.
- “FIGHTING FOR TENANTS PROTECTION”
- “Nicola co-sponsored the Tenancies (Reform) Bill to put an end to revenge evictions when tenant’s make genuine complaints about poor conditions.”
- “Nicola condemned police using RIPA to find journalist’s sources…”
Those among you with a sharp eye, or a bit of proofreading training, might spot some issues above. Strangely, all three errors are misused apostrophes. Of course they should be corrected.
- “FIGHTING FOR TENANTS’ PROTECTION”
- “Nicola co-sponsored the Tenancies (Reform) Bill to put an end to revenge evictions when tenants make genuine complaints about poor conditions.”
- “Nicola condemned police using RIPA to find journalists’ sources…”
Do you think it matters? Nicola is clearly very busy, and maybe she has no time for the poor old apostrophe.
But why can’t we get it right? The apostrophe in the middle of “tenant’s” is, as anyone who has undertaken proofreading training on one of the seminars I teach will tell you, a “greengrocer’s apostrophe”. They are so-called because of those old favourites: apple’s, potatoe’s, pear’s…
The War on Illiteracy
Maybe I wouldn’t have been so bothered by those three abused apostrophes if the major political parties were not engaged in a war on illiteracy.
Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, has declared war. War on poor grammar, war on poor punctuation, war on bad spelling. Maybe she’s declared war on verbless sentences, too, in which case I’d better take cover. And does she aim boldly to declare war on the split infinitive too, or is that old-fashioned now?
Morgan’s aim is that by the age of eleven everyone “should be able to write a short story with accurate punctuation, spelling and grammar”. Will she be putting Nicola Blackwood in special measures and closing down her office until she’s read Eats, Shoots and Leaves?
Maybe before too many more words are spoken by politicians about illiteracy, some proofreading training might be wise!
I’m looking forward to the leaflets from the Lib Dems, Labour, Greens et al… Though I’m not necessarily saying the grammatical standards of the flyers will decide my vote!
Proofreading Training and Proofreading the Politicians
If you’re involved in local or national politics in any way, I’d advise you to get in touch with the office of your preferred local party. Maybe your contribution for the election ought to be some proofreading – after all, we don’t want our politicians embarassed by por speling or bad grammer, do we? Even elven-year-olds can get it rite.
Perhaps the parties should set aside a proofreading training budget for their prospective MPs to help them through the campaign?
Alternatively, if you see any favourite typos, spelling errors or punctuation howlers in the literature which drops through your door, tweet it (@Chapterhouse_UK) or post it here!
Now, I’m off to practise my times tables…