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Spot the glaring grammatical error in this bit of journalism

 
 
Mame
 
Reply Tue 26 Sep, 2006 06:22 pm
Iowa Woman Finds Drowned Bat in Tea Mug
From Associated Press
September 25, 2006 9:36 PM EDT
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - A western Iowa woman is recovering from the shock of finding a drowned bat in her tea mug - after she sipped from the cup all day.

The brown bat, about the size of two tea bags, was found a few weeks ago by a 60-year-old Woodbury County woman, said Chuck Cipperley, an environmental director for the Siouxland health office in Sioux City.

"I knew the person, so I knew it was no joke," said Cipperley, who took the call from the woman.

The woman, who declined to identify herself, told Cipperley she found the bat when she was cleaning out the mug at night. She said she put the bat in a plastic bag before alerting the Siouxland health office the next morning.

Cipperley said the bat was sent that day - Sept. 1 - to the University Hygienic Laboratory in Coralville. Results showed the bat did not have rabies.

State Epidemiologist Patricia Quinlisk said had the bat been rabid, the woman probably would have underwent a series of rabies shots, even though the probability of contracting rabies would be low.

The virus needs a break in the skin to enter the body, said Susan Brockus, state public health veterinarian.

Mike Pentella, program manager at University Hygienic Laboratory, said the bat was a first for the lab.

"We test many, many bats," he said, "but none that have drowned in a cup of tea before."

---

Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazetteonline.com/

______________________________________

Did you catch it? It leapt right out at me - one of my pet peeves.
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ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Sep, 2006 06:26 pm
Do you mean 'have underwent'? That should have been 'have undergone'.
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echi
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Sep, 2006 06:33 pm
State Epidemiologist Patricia Quinlisk said had the bat been rabid, the woman probably would have underwent a series of rabies shots, even though the probability of contracting rabies was low.



Did I get it?? Did I get it??
0 Replies
 
Mame
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Sep, 2006 06:48 pm
Yeah, Osso got it . Makes me cringe to read that. I was editing an article featuring my boss the other day and two glaring things the writer was doing wrong:

1. The company had its' beginning...

I said, its is already a possessive pronoun... it doesn't need an apostrophe - we argued for about 5 minutes before he grudgingly removed them.

2. The second one was a sentence that ended in "... Company Inc.."

I asked him to remove the second period and he said the first one was for the Inc. and the second one was for the sentence. Can you believe that?? We ended up compromising by removing the offending Inc.!

3. And those were only the worst - here was another:

Not only did Mr. Blah blah do blah blah, but as well, he did blah blah...too.

Yii yii yii... this guy is a journalist!?
0 Replies
 
Valpower
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Sep, 2006 07:38 pm
echi wrote:
State Epidemiologist Patricia Quinlisk said had the bat been rabid, the woman probably would have underwent a series of rabies shots, even though the probability of contracting rabies was low.



Did I get it?? Did I get it??


I have to admit, that bothered me more, echi--though it is more of a logical error than a grammatical one. Wait a sec, is the probability low or is it going to be low? Look, if there's something you know about the future, shouldn't that figure into your probability calculation?
0 Replies
 
stuh505
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Sep, 2006 07:49 pm
Reminds me of one of the times at my dad's cabin in Maine. The morning after hiking up the mountain my dad went to pour himself a cup of coffee using some water he had left around in an opaque jug since the last time he was up there. I suggested he get some fresh water but he seemed to think it was fine. Later on when he was pouring some more water a dead mouse fell out, and he finally conceeded that perhaps it was time to get some new fresh water.
0 Replies
 
 

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