EDITORIAL SAFEGUARDS AND ASTOUNDING ERRORS

Sensible meaning should be at the heart of any communication. It's really pointless for the press to share meaningless information. That's why it's common practise to have different levels of proof reading and fact checking. It's utterly astounding therefore, when these editorial safeguards fail to prevent embarrassing errors.

If the information does not make sense to the writer or sub-editor, chances are very high the same will be true for the reader.

The highlighted paragraph in the article above reads:

An institution that hires an unregistered teacher is liable to a fine of not less than Sh100,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both.

The subject here is an institution. It's fine to say, '...is liable to a fine of not less than Sh100,000...'.

But it almost sounds absurd, when the article suggests that other than the fine, an offending institution can also be subjected to, '...imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years...'.

At times, all that is needed is re-reading the 'copy' or better still, reading the contents aloud.

This way, any lurking mistakes stand a good chance of being spotted and rectified, before a newspaper article gets published.

And this also applies also to those charged with crafting headlines.

To stay ahead in the news business, try and ensure readers don't lose their heads on account of your headlines.