Use intelligence when following language rules
Newspaper headlines on July 24, 2015 ahead of former US President Barack Obama's visit to Nairobi. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Thus one rule that a newspaper’s newly engaged sub-editorial operator faces is that he or she must never use any grammatical article in a news headline.
Every grammatical rule — even a newspaper’s house rule — must be obeyed only with intelligence.
There are special occasions when even the definite article “the” should not be elided from (left out of) any headline.
Many readers may have noticed that most English-language newspapers almost never use the grammar articles“a”, “an” and “the” in their news headlines. Yet, though the reason is significant, it is not god-imposed.
For the problem is only that such an article tends to arrest the speed of a headline. And whenever a news headline is thus made to trundle like Mzee Kobe, it loses all energy and mental attraction.
Thus one rule that a newspaper’s newly engaged sub-editorial operator faces is that he or she must never use any grammatical article in a news headline. In an English-language newspaper in Nairobi, say, one of the disadvantages for a sub-editor is that his or her own mother tongue — like Dholuo or Kikuyu or even Kiswahili — does not have such grammatical articles.
Concerning that rule, however, my advice to those concerned is to summon up intelligence all the time. Please remember that yours is an English-language newspaper and that, in English, such articles are essential throughout, especially in writing.
GRAMMATICAL RULE
Concerning them, therefore, it is advisable to remember that every rule has an exception and that, therefore, every grammatical rule — even a newspaper’s house rule — must be obeyed only with intelligence.
At least in East Africa, the chief sub-editor himself or herself — namely, the newsroom employee in charge of page planning, page layout and language propriety — is, in most cases, equally alien to English.
As I learned when I served as The Daily Nation’s chief sub-editor, many decades ago, that is the chief reason that the chief sub-editor may frequently be just as culpable as the ordinary sub-editor down-table.
Even the chief sub-editor, whose mastery of English is usually among the chief possessions that qualified him or her for that post, may have so absolutised the rules on articles as to seek to impose his or her own misunderstanding even upon features and personal columns. No, there are special occasions when even the definite article “the” should not be elided from (left out of) any headline.
COPY REVISER
It is the chief sub-editor’s responsibility to ensure that everybody down-table — every sub-editor — is aware of and carefully follows that rule. It is the responsibility of the editorial copy reviser — whenever such a position exists — to help the chief sub to impose all such rules fully.
Yet, in East Africa’s newspapers, the article the is dutifully elided, especially from the headlines of letters to the editor. However, only from news headlines should the grammar articles, including “the”, be elided because they tend to apply a brake onto a headline’s speed. Indeed, that is why most English-language newspapers the world over proscribe the article the from atop all news stories.
But intelligence should remind every editorial policeman or policewoman that the chief reason this problem gives no end of grief to Africa’s reporters, feature writers and sub-editors is that their mother tongues — including the trans-tribal Kiswahili and my own Nilotic Dholuo — do not have grammatical articles like the a, an and the of the English language.
