Did you know that The New York Times has a blog on grammar, usage, and style. In a world of text-speak and changing educational standards on writing and grammar, it’s heartening for me to see one of the primary papers of records (and yes, my paper of record) scrutinize not only their facts but also the structure and style of their articles. Two days ago they published some of their errata related to foreign words in articles. It astounded me that their error rate can be as high as 50% for non-English words.

Part of the reason I’m having a problem getting my head around this is, there are so many “foreign” words that have burrowed their way into the English language. New York in particular is a hotbed of linguistic mashup. I’m also shocked that spellchecking did not pick up mistakes in spelling or accentuation.

In any event, it’s easy to lose something in translation even when you speak the same language. It’s so important, in my humble opinion, to ensure that people young and old are equipped with the right tools and training to write clearly and understandably so that the message does not get clouded by the delivery.