Craig Silverman, who wrote the book Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech, says research shows that the most common newspaper errors are misquotes, followed by incorrect headlines, numerical errors, general misspellings, incorrect job titles, and misspellings of names. The one thing that stands out when you look at Silverman’s list is that all are so eminently preventable. And maybe the most egregious is spelling someone’s name wrong – because all it takes is for a reporter to ask about spelling. Most name misspellings are when we assume we know. Someone introduces himself as John Smith, and we assume that’s the spelling, rather than ask – and it turns out he’s Jon Smyth. This Poynter piece on misspelling of names shows why it’s so important, so it’s probably something you should print and distribute among your reporters.
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