Come on, let’s start the week off right! Via our new section “20 Minutes, I listen!” », intended for questions and comments from readers on our treatment of information, in particular, Philippe, 43, wrote to us this:
Why do your articles contain so many spelling mistakes?
We’re not going to lie to each other, it stings. And it stings all the more that we are well aware of the problem. Yes, our articles contain spelling, grammar, agreement, conjugation, French… and many more certainly. We would like to be beyond reproach. This is not the case.
Miles of lines written every day
Because we may be obliged to publish content urgently, hot news requires, or be interrupted by a task that will make us simply forget to check this or that subtlety of the French language. Because, although we are professional journalists, we are not proofreaders. Corrector is a profession, a world, even, in its own right (the presentation on this link). AT 20 minuteswe are lucky to have one, but it deals primarily with the paper journal (more explanations below).
Because, too, our journalists don’t have just one article to put online during their working day. And the more we do, the more we are exposed to errors. A figure to enlighten you: 130 articles on average are written each day by the editorial staff.
That being said, how 20 minutes does it try to limit breakage? By respecting what is called the “copy circuit”. For the Web, the editor must proofread, use the Prolexis ortho-typo correction software installed on his computer, submit his text (or his video, or his story… we do not forget the social networks either!) to his supervisor. If the latter is not available, a digital editor takes over. Digital editor who, for his part, also finds himself faced with a mountain of texts to process. On the form, of course, but also on the substance, eh, otherwise it would be too easy. In an ideal world, at the end of this great grooming, the article is supposed to be nickel. Knowing that sometimes, in case of emergency, there is publication before proofreading by a third party, which corrects while the article is already online.
Point barre, the hell of the press corrector https://t.co/kjzboBFb3l pic.twitter.com/bAg1kQZsDO
— The Time (@TheTime) August 7, 2018
Additional filters for the paper journal
For the print, that is to say the paper newspaper, there are a certain number of tasks to be carried out by the editor (commonly called sub-editor, or SR), which can be sources of error. “In the publishing department, we have to cut articles, often long, from the Web and rewrite them slightly so that they best adapt to the small format of our newspaper, explains Nicolas Guérin, head of the publishing department. Sometimes we need to update them when new information falls. Even if we read each other diligently, these are all interventions that can cause us to make mistakes. All the more so when we are in the urgency of the closure, that is to say in the last minutes before sending the files to the printing press. Fortunately, all these interventions are validated by the press editor, specially assigned to the paper newspaper, and the department head.
In an ideal world, after this new grooming, the newspaper is also supposed to be polished. And when this is not the case, we might as well tell you that we feel bad. Vis-à-vis the reader, the author of the article and his interlocutors.
Finally, be aware that in case of pellet, if for the paper newspaper, there is no possible reverse, on the Web, we can rectify the situation. By ourselves or through a reader. At the end of each article is the pictogram “A fault? “. Well, if you click on it, you have the option to report the error you noticed to us. You can also directly highlight with the mouse the text of the article that you are reading to bring up a panel “Attention danger”. A digital editor or any other available journalist will then proceed with the correction.
So, fault confessed, fault half forgiven?
Have another question? It’s here that it happens :