Grammatical errors and typos have become increasingly present in The Cavalier Daily. Mistakes are understandable and sometimes corrections are necessary. Large, professional newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times print corrections to articles, although they do so sparingly. Last week The Cavalier Daily mislabeled a photo of Student Council President, Sarah Kenny. The caption of the photo described her as a Batten student when she is actually a student in the College. This error was handled appropriately and corrected shortly thereafter.
If this incident occurred in isolation there would be little reason to comment. However, there have been multiple instances of grammatical errors and blatant typos that heavily detract from the substance of Cavalier Daily articles. In addition, many of these mistakes have gone seemingly unnoticed and uncorrected by staff members. A recent article about accessibility on Grounds mentions the “Report a Barrier Tool” and the word “Barrier” was misspelled. This error has remained online for about two weeks. The sub-heading on another article reads “Current U.S. policy could make Russia to give back Crimea, but not without consequences.” Grammatically, this sentence is incorrect. It is also a generally confusing statement. These types of mistakes have become more common and make it difficult to take the writing seriously.
Presentation and credibility matter to readers, and errors such as these do little to inspire confidence in The Cavalier Daily. Editors and authors have a responsibility to carefully consider the way they are presenting their work and take the time to comb through drafts of articles before they go to print. A large number of people, including alumni and community members read Cavalier Daily articles and they do notice these mistakes. Errors often stick out like a sore thumb and it is important to prevent them whenever possible.
Readers should be able to get through an article without having to pause to re-read a confusing sentence or get distracted by a misspelled word. The recent mistakes are unfortunate and should be addressed seriously by staff. While typos and grammatical errors may seem like minute details, they matter greatly because they can serve as a signal of low quality to readers.
Jacquelyn Katuin is the Public Editor for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com or on Twitter at @CDPublicEditor.
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