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Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll -- having already given his view on liberal bias at the paper, and having gotten a huge outside reaction -- now wants to do something inside about grammar mistakes. In the memo that follows, Melissa McCoy and Clark Stevens are the senior editors who oversee the copy desks and language style of the Times.
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 1:26 PM
Subject: Memo from John Carroll
Colleagues,
You'll soon be receiving a memo from Melissa McCoy and Clark Stevens on a source of frequent errors in the paper: sequence of tenses.
I've never counted the sequence-of-tenses errors in The Times, but I feel confident that we publish scores of them every day. By contrast, I almost never see such errors in the "other" Times. (The Washington Post appears to be as lax as we are.)
Melissa and Clark will explain sequence of tenses in detail, but for those who are unfamiliar with it, here is one example. Choose the correct sentence:
A. The governor said he will go to the Legislature.
OR
B. The governor said he would go to the Legislature.
If you chose B, you're on the right track, and the forthcoming memo will give you more information.
The memo on tenses is the first in a series of efforts to train the entire staff - not just the copy desk - to avoid grammar and usage errors that crop up frequently in The Times. Only if everyone takes personal responsibility can The Times get beyond these routine errors and distinguish itself as a conspicuously literate, well-written, and well-edited publication.
Keep an eye out for the memo from Melissa and Clark, and please take the time to master it.
My thanks to all.
John