Words That Drive Me Crazy:
Today's entertainment headline, stuffed at the bottom where Paris Hilton news usually goes, was today's blog fodder: Van Halen to announce their reunion tour.
When I took journalism class, there was a unit/lesson about writing headlines. Half of it is enticing the reader to read, the other half is communicating the message in the most succint way possible. All of it was about writing the truth.
Now I don't know whether it's the fault of the journalist, or the fault of Van Halen's publicists (lord knows there's nothing redeeming about their lot), but here's a little tip about English.
If you are about to announce something, YOU'VE ALREADY ANNOUNCED IT.
This drives me nuts because it happens all the time, especially in the video game industry. David Jaffe's about to announce God of War 2. Microsoft to announce next generation console. Nintendo to announce Wii channel update. Yeah, people, these things have already happened.
They're not about to announce crap, it's already been announced. I don't know who announced it, but the point of announcing is to inform people about something new. Once it's announced, you can't announce it again. There's no word such as 're-announcing'. That's renouncing, that's the opposite (although there's plenty of things I wish people would renounce). There is only ever one announcement. So you can't be about to announce something. It's announced.
This concludes today's announcement.
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