Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Another error from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

I know I shouldn't be pointing fingers. Goodness knows that I probably have typos in each and every blog post. However, I also don't employ a staff of proofreaders. Also, since most newspapers in the United States (probably excepting the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times) are written at an 8th grade level, shouldn't we expect that they manage that without error?

In an article this morning from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is yet again another grammatical error:

One person was killed around 2:30 a.m. in a single car accident on the 1600 block of Aurora, their car splitting in half, after striking a light pole, Seattle police spokeswoman Renee Witt said.

The victim's identity has not yet been released and police are continuing to investigate. The victim was the only person in the car, Witt said.


Did you catch it?

4 comments:

Lauren said...

their car splitting in half (NO COMMA) after hitting a light pole. AM I RIGHT??

Roxanne said...

You're close. You found the clause with the error in it, but pinpointed the wrong error (it doesn't pertain to the lack of comma). Thanks for playing along though!

Unknown said...

If it was ONE person, it should not be THEIR car. It would be his car or her car, but the number should match.

Unknown said...

If it was a single car accident, it should be "his or her" car, not "their" car. Although there is no impersonal single pronoun in English, making the need for the awkward "his/her" or sometimes just "his" (which can be inaccurate) when referring to an unnamed single person.