Throwback Travel Thursdays

Was cleaning my bookshelf and saw this!

It's the travel article I wrote for Mabuhay magazine almost a decade ago.

Gosh! It's been years since my last visit to the places in this article. I've been to HKG several times, but never had the time to go to the outskirts (where these 3 places are.)

Makes me wonder if these places are still there. 

(The Lane Crawford outlet in Ap Lei Chau is still there, according to my friend.)

Wrong Bulletin

As a Journalism teacher - and as a reader at large - seeing wrong information while reading online newspapers make me shake my head and do a face palm.

And yes, I've seen my fair share of wrong information posted online. Even by legitimate news outlets.

Just like this one that I saw on the online version of Manila Bulletin today.

The headline says that "Bicol logs 166 deaths in 1 day." Quite alarming.

But when you read the article, it turns out that they logged 166 cases, not deaths.

Gosh! How can the online editor miss something as big as this. Not only is it misleading, again, it's alarming!

Proofreader please!

Think before you click

 It's a truism not just for social media, but for online journalists as well.

Observe:

The online editor must have clicked "publish" too early. He or she didn't even notice that there's information missing and still pending.

Online proofreader. Please!

Country Conundrum, the return

 “Country” should be an easy word to spell, right?

I guess not.

Proofreader. Please!

Country Conundrum

Come on, guys! We're Filipinos. We should know how to spell the name of our country.

Where do these people get their writers? And editors? And proofreaders?

This baffles me. Seriously.

Strange. Very Strange.

Sometimes, I don't know if it's because we were trained to proofread as journalism students, or if there are just too many typographical errors in on-line articles these days.

While reading the cinema blend website article about Doctor Strange, I chanced upon this article that was equally strange.

I'm an avid follower of the comic book series, and I've never come across this character.

The "Ancinet One?" That's someone new. I wonder if he's related to The "Ancient One." Harhar.

What the heel?

In the continuing saga of "Where are the proofreaders?"

This one comes from stylebible, and they had an article about how to spot a fake Louboutin.

The article looked perfectly normal until...

Yes, you have to check the "hell" of the shoe to see if it's a fake or not.

Seriously, get a proofreader.

Word up!

As a mentor to Journalism students, as well as to aspiring copywriters, one thing I teach them is to avoid using the word "very" when pertaining to a superlative. It's a bit lazy and there are more, more, more words to connote superlatives.

Today, I found this on-line, and it pretty much captures the lesson I try to teach my students.

I'm definitely sharing this with them.

Hoddwinked

Here's an article about 12 of the most boring films ever made.

What's wrong with this picture?

Maybe it's a new version, and "Hodd" is his family name.

Proofreader please.

To err is human

Yes Virginia, there are grammatical lapses in on-line articles everywhere. Even in American websites. To think this is their first language.

While reading this article on 10 movies who should've won an Oscar but didn't, I found out the one of their favorite movies "didn't won" an award.

Now, inspired by the last line in this screenshot: "But what disappointed me is that they didn't proofread."

Spot the errors

Reading articles over the net is so distracting, especially when you see how many errors are there in the articles that are posted on-line.

The latest error I spotted was from - peculiarly - spot.ph. It was on their recent article on Uniqlo's Ines dela Fressange collection.

If you listen to the sentence in your head, it's actually right. But if you read it, you immediately know that it's wrong.

I think they wanted to say "Their photo is too small for us..." and not this:

On-line proofreaders should really do their job better. Just saying.

Mag-nificent

Truth is, I've always wanted to work in a magazine.

It's a want that's rooted on two things.

First, I grew up around magazines. Lolo Iking was a voracious reader, and I remember the library strewn with Newsweek, Time, Reader's Digest and National Geographic magazines. Whenever I had the time, I'd read each one, and would enjoy the personality profiles in Time and the jokes in Reader's Digest. (All in a Day's Work, anyone?)

Second, I'm a journalism graduate. I always thought I'd work in the journalism field, but I'm glad that I took this detour to advertising.

Now, because I've always wanted to work in a magazine, I look forward to my journalism subjects in SSC. Through my Feature and Technical Writing Class, (along with my Investigative Journalism class) I do get to be a part of conceptualizing, writing and publishing a magazine.

A magazine such as this:

"Kulahsa" is our laboratory paper, and it's a travel magazine that's the product of our Singapore trip last February. The clever title was given by our graphic designer, Tins, and the articles inside were all conceptualized and written by the students.

Keeping with the St. Scholastica's theme, the cover girls were two of my formers students, AD and Mai. It was gratifying to meet them again, and to see how far they've gone.

Reading the magazine again, it felt so gratifying to see how nicely the magazine came out. Actually, my heart was swelling with pride as I turned each page.

I can't wait to do this again next year.

Proofreading should be in fashion

Everyone knows I'm a huge fan of Instyle, as well as their on-line version, instyle.com. And as much as  I love them, they need to work on their proofreading, especially on their website. 

While I was reading their feature on the 20 best dresses worn by Oscar best actress winners, I spotted these:

1. What the sheeth?

I believe the dress is called a "sheath."

2. It's dead.

I know what "dedicated" is, so is "deadicated" a past tense of that. I mean, the dedication did die.

There might be errors, but hey, that doesn't diminish how much I enjoy reading InStyle.

What the P?

The whole fracas in BKK is so interesting, I follow the happenings there everyday. And while reading today's article on the situation, a line on the article caught my eye.

Check out the date:

What's December P? December Por? Pive? Pipteen?

Gosh, somebody send that site a proofreader. Please!

Say what?

I was reading this article on Krispy Kreme's resurgence in the U.S., and there was one sentence that I just didn't get.

Gosh. I've been reading it over and over and over again, and I still can't get it.

The writer must've had too much sugar before writing this piece.

When lift goes left

Oh look, another glaring error in on-line journalism!

Believe me, I don't go out looking for these things. It just so happens that there's quite a lot of them peppered around cyberspace.

For example, I was looking for an article about Japan's alleged lifting of visa requirements for Filipino passport holders (untrue, apparently) and saw the above article. Unfortunately, instead of "lifting" the visa requirements, they "lefted" it.

If only I had a dollar for every error I inadvertently spot, I'd have a lot of dollars by now.

Not so fast with that "publish" button

Or else, you might end up with something like this:

If you look closely, you'll see some marginal instructions from either the writer or the editor. The problem is, they published it before the notes were removed.

Yet another case for more proofreaders for on-line publications.

Oh, what a difference a letter makes. Part deux!

Here are some more on-line journalism slips. This time, I found them on Rappler while reading about the recent mishap at Davao airport.

When a plane starts to land, it's called a "descent," and not "decent."

Most planes look very ordinary and boring with designs often appearing on the vertical stabilizer.

But I don't think people should resort to calling these "planes" "plain." Harhar.

Again, hire proofreaders. Please.

Don't encourage him

Yesterday, I read an article about the retirement of PacMan. What struck me most about the article was the author's suggestion of what he should do now that he's hanging up his boxing gloves.

Really? President?

Say it isn't so.

More proof for more proofreaders

As much as I try not to pay too much attention to it, I guess my background in Journalism makes my eyes hypersensitive to errors on the printed word.

Take for instance this caption that I saw on a Yahoo article on the Inaugural Ball of the President of the United States.

Looks pretty normal, until you get to the part when they talk about what the FLOTUS wore.

I think they meant to say "wear red during the Inaugural Ball," and ended up with two "thes" in one sentence.

If they had a proofreader, I'm sure he or she have spotted that.