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Some more bad writing

Lest anyone thinks bad writing is solely the domain of foreigners…

The BBC News website (http://news.bbc.co.uk) is home to writing crimes too.

Some.

What does that word mean to you?

No, really, that’s not a rhetorical question: What does the word ‘some’ mean to you?

To me, the word ‘some’ is an indefinite pronoun. It is a grouping device, used to describe an unspecified quantity.

Thinks: do people even understand what a pronoun is, these days?

Correct examples of the word ‘some’ would be: ‘I shall have some cereal’ and ‘I would like some tea’.

So, in broad terms, it would be correct to use ‘some’ where the precise amount of what is being described – or named – is not known.

An incorrect use of the word ‘some’ would be to construct a sentence where the precise amount of that thing is known.

And this, my friends, is the trap that the BBC News website falls in to on a daily – daily! – basis.

Today’s howler is the first paragraph of this item, that begins with the cringeworthy sentence:

Some 171 civil servants are paid more than Prime Minister David Cameron’s £142,500-a-year salary, according to Cabinet Office figures.

What?

No, really.

What?

If you examine the logical structure of that sentence, it actually does not make sense.

Using the word ‘some’ next to the precise number of things the piece is talking about is the construction of nonsense.

This is a good example of a lazy writer using a word just for the sake of using the word, even if, as a result of using that word, the sentence is rendered in to gibberish.

I know that BBC News are going through turbulent times. I know that staff are being laid-off and that website content production is a task that, in theory, almost anyone could do. But is it really necessary to have the news output of this country’s state broadcaster presented to the world as meaningless rubbish?

Unfortunately, as I said at the start of this piece, this use of the word ‘some’ is a daily crime at the BBC News website.

Indeed, later in the article we see that:

Some 28 of those earning over £150,000 are in the Ministry of Justice.

Good grief.

7 thoughts on “Some more bad writing”

  1. Hmmm, the Grauniad’s style guide has it as a no-no, but I’m sure I’ve come across it as far back as Austen – I seem to remember Mrs Bennett describing another character’s income as ‘some ten thousand a year’. I think it’s archaic, but I wouldn’t say it’s wrong.

  2. I don’t think that’s wrong – i think it’s outdated but not incorrect. Grammatically, yes it doesn’t make sense but linguistically it’s fine

  3. Following strict grammatical rules, use of the word ‘some’ in that fashion is obviously incorrect.

    But, do we need to adhere to the rules so rigidly? Spoken language and the written word are both constantly evolving and maybe the rules are relaxing a little to accomodate this.

    Or, perhaps the rules are still there, but we have become a little more relaxed about them.

    As an example, didn’t it always used to be a no-no to start a sentence with a conjunction?

    And yet, nowadays we ALL do it. 🙂

  4. We were taught at uni that there is no such thing as ‘wrong’ English, merely ‘non-standard’. However I do agree that writing some next to a specific figure is a bit odd. Not as annoying as kids who say ‘like’ 15 times in every sentence though….

  5. If that’s the worst you have to endure, then I’d stick with the BBC. Try this gem of cut-and-paste massacre from the NZ Herald – also typical:

    The iPad’s debut sets the stage for Apple very probably launch of a new iPhone. This will most likely be launched by Chief Executive Steve Jobs on June 7 during the annual Apple Worldwide Developers’ Conference. The new model is thought to have with multi-tasking features and more, but we don’t know anything officially about it, of course.

    Note they got the apostrophe in the right place in the middle sentence. Bravo!

  6. Thanks for your views folks.

    Caroline, the example you’ve quoted from Austen is correct.. Some ten thousand means in today’s parlance ‘It’s ten thousand and change but I can’t remember exactly how much’, whereas ‘Some 171’ is just bizarre.

    LizSara, Hmm….

    Masher, I think some rules are more flexible than others and therefore open to legitimate challenge, but murdering a pronoun in cold blood should be punishable by death. Yes, English is under continuous evolutionary change and that’s not a bad thing, but a pronoun exists for a reason, and that reason should not be ignored. Unless, of course, we’re in the business of using words just for the sake of using them.

    Vicola, Hmm….

    Allister, can you send me a phrase book?

  7. I think that the use of the word ‘some’ is used to soften the introduction of the sentence. So it is probably ok to use the word ‘some’ alongside a defined number.

    Having said that…… I am probably not qualified to judge!!

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