Mea Culpa: Unmasking the truth about so-called phrases

John Rentoul will return as the pedant-in-chief next week, but I thought I’d use this brief opportunity to take another look at some of the subbing desk’s pet hates.

That aged badly: It is journalistic convention to use a subject’s age to avoid repetition of their name. At The Independent, we try to avoid this technique unless their age is relevant to the piece. In an article about Fenway Sports Group this week, we mentioned the 70-year-old John W Henry, a “leading figure” in the firm that owns Liverpool FC. Has his age been a factor in the club’s success this season? I doubt it.

Facing the facts: Last week, I wrote about readers not needing to be reminded of the “ongoing” pandemic. The use of ongoing is unnecessary as they have lived through this global crisis for several months. But, as John has mentioned before, another pandemic-related word is taking up vital space on these pages. Face masks cover the face, yes, but masks are used to cover the face, so the word “face” is redundant. I found three unnecessary uses in one Daily Edition this week. I can only apologise for the four times politicians couldn’t face up to the challenge of avoiding the word. We have no control over what they say. Perhaps I should start selling foot masks (shoes) on eBay.

Inverted comma chameleon: From unnecessary words to unnecessary punctuation: our campaign to remove inverted commas from “so-called” phrases clearly needs more resources. By saying so-called we are already signalling to the reader: “This is a thing that some people say.” Inverted commas perform the same role: either use inverted commas or use so-called. This week, we mentioned the so-called “level playing field” on Brexit regulations and the so-called “Russia report”. If I had my way, so-called would be banned. It often sounds pompous and we should be confident in using phrases that are widely understood.