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My guess is that they had "Thirty-year-old" and found out that he was 31.
Deleting "Thirty-" would be too much work, so would typing "one." Maybe
it's a deadline thing.
Lauren
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
> Behalf Of neilson -at- windstream -dot- net
> Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 9:30 AM
> To: Techwr-l
> Subject: Automatic editing?
>
> The following paragraph is from an online report on the web page
> of KLTV in Tyler TX (near Dallas).
>
> "Thirty-1-year-old Martin Laguna is charged with conspiracy to
> possess heroin with intent to distribute, plus distribution of
> heroin. He's also charged with possession of a firearm during a
> drug trafficking crime."
>
> Thirty-1 ??? How did they accomplish that? Whaddya bet that as a
> TV station, they're not putting much effort into editing for good
> journalistic writing. So they have a smell-checker that tries to
> apply some AP Style Guide rules: (a) Numbers from 1 to 10 are spelled
> out, and everything else is in digits. (b) Sentences do not begin with
> numbers in digits. Applying both rules at once gives amazing results.
>
> I'm sure it's from automatic editing; no human editor, reporter or
> typist could do something so ridiculous, even if not a native
> speaker of English.
>
> So you saw it here first--the oncoming automation of copy editing.
> As tech writers we tend to regard MS Word's grammar and spelling
> suggestions as occasionally helpful and frequently quite silly.
> We ignore them when we know they're wrong. But the Bulldozer of
> Future Standards is upon us, and we will be crushed by it. We will
> see our finished writing pushed through an automatic Grammar
> Grinder and ruined in the name of improvement, and the result
> will become the new standard.
>
> [Neilson emulates the Grammar Grinder on previous graf:]
> So you were here first. The outcome automates copy editing.
> As technical writers tend to regard Ms. Word's grammar and
> spelling suggestions... [Geez, I gotta stop; my head hurts.]
>
> --Peter Neilson
>
>
>
>
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