Week 4

To start off, I am going to review one of the editing mistakes I found on Associated Press while reading an online news story.  The story was about the UN and a new anti-nuclear treaty that was being signed for by a few countries. All of the grammar was correct, but they included the same sentence twice, and those sentences were next to each other. It read like this, "Brazilian President Michel Temer was first to sign. Brazilian President Michel Temer was first to sign." Obviously, these are two sentences that are exactly the same, and one needs to be taken out.

I think that there, their and they're are something that most people know, but it is always helpful to refresh. "There" is in, at, or to that place or position. "I placed my book over there." "Their" is belonging to or associated with, and means to own. "Their football team is very good." Finally, "they're" is for they are. "They're playing on the playground."

I believe the most common problem is not the fact that people do not know the difference, it is that people type too fast and do not reread what they're writing. This is especially important in an editing position, as each word truly can make a difference in the meaning of the entire sentence. The lesson is although most of us do not have a problem understanding the correct usage, we need to be careful that our brains do not write faster than our hands type.