(Reading, Riting and ‘Rithmetic).

Today on the cover of the Willy we were subjected to some really amazing slippage on the copy-editing. The biker (who I think actually wrote the article) referred to shattering vertebra as a “wincing pain”. Perfectly acceptable english, technically. Stylistically, it’s incredibly flawed. Gerunds can indeed be used to modify nouns, because in the process they become compound nouns (I think. The phrase they make is considered a noun as a whole. Something like that). However, to be even accurate, the gerund doing the modification has to apply.

(more after the jump. I don’t want to bork the front page. Of course, I don’t know how moveable type handles large entries, not penning that many of them)

Which this doesn’t. Allow me to explain. The title of the article (and the subtitle [and the article]) caused me wincing pain. I winced. Nothing more. In the context of English, literature, reading a writing, a wince is quite significant, actually. In the context of a car hitting you and breaking your spine, a wince is woefully inadequate. Examples? I’m so glad you asked.

“I winced at his violation of Strunk and White.”
VS.
“A blinding pain numbed my senses after the red car struck me from my bicycle.”

Compare and contrast? Of course.

“Any violation of Strunk and White causes me blinding pain.”
VS.
“As if getting hit by a car were not enough, I struck the pavement hard enough to inflict a wincing pain on my back.”

As you’ll note, in the first example sentence, a wince is sufficient to convey the emotions evoked by any violation of a cardinal grammar book. In the third, the sentence is given a nearly ludicrous pallor by the exaggeration of how I feel when grammar grates on the ear. In the second example sentence, the realistic description of how one might feel before EMTs arrive at the scene of a bike/car crash makes for good writing. The fourth example sentence might be interpreted as a weak attempt at sarcasm, or an attempt to laugh off what is obviously a wicked awful injury.

No matter how you look at it, there’s some really bogus slippage going on in the WW corridors.

Of course, they are organizing MusicFest Northwest (some of which I’m attending). That might account for the laziness in copy editing. But not the other slip-ups. The print edition’s horoscopes are the same as the previous week’s. Not to mention the day of listings at the Roseland missing in action.

Oops.

And yes, before you ask, I have nothing better to do with my time than to criticise one of the two alternative papers in town. I thought it might give you a break from the relentless Oregonian bashing. Speaking of, have you yet experienced your news in High Definition? Well, let me tell you something. When you own a thirty inch Apple screen and snort 3 lines off the top for breakfast, life is in high definition.