Yesterday I received an email from a friend with a copy of a news reports obviously written from a World Health Organization media release. Part of the news report follows:
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WHO confirms 148 swine flu cases in nine countries
A total of 148 laboratory-confirmed human cases of swine flu A/H1N1 infection have been officially reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) as of Wednesday, the UN agency said.
Those cases were reported from nine countries, including 91 from the United States, with one death, and 26 from Mexico, with seven deaths, the agency said in a latest update.
The other seven countries that have reported laboratory-confirmed cases with no deaths include Austria (1), Canada (13), Germany (3), Israel (2), New Zealand (3), Spain (4) and Britain (5), the agency said.
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As the report was syndicated by an international news bureau, I have no doubt that all its facts are accurate. I also thought the report has no spelling errors or errors in grammar.
Everything checks out, except for one error.
Okay. Just for fun, what do you think is that error?
If you can tell the one error in this report, a surprise gift from emanila awaits you.
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A total of … has (instead of have) been officially reported…
“A total” is a singular subject so the past participle form of the verb must agree with it.
A total of… has (instead of have) been officially reported…
“A total of” is a prepositional phrase that takes a singular form of a verb.
erratum:
There were no gramatical nor syntax errors in the report. The only error there is the TITLE, “WHO confirms 148 swine flu cases in nine countries.” The heading does not obviously talk about WHO (World Health Organization) confirming 148 swine flu cases. The report has an inappropriate title.
I think its the use of the dash at the “laboratory-confirmed” in my opinion I think the en dash is unnecessary.
Hi, Ka Romy, I almost insisted on finding an error in grammar, but I trust your keen eyesight and judgment, hehe, ok, just for fun, could it be the numbers in “H1N1″?
At one glance, the subscript 1 in the H1N1 gives you an idea that it could be a chemical formula of the virus, but I have read lots of articles about this virus, and found no H1N1 spelled with the numbers written as subscript… I don’t want to go into a deep analysis of the A/H1N1 virus why is it called that way… baka ma-obvious naman that I really went so far to get that surprise gift…
… Well, I had fun trying to figure this out…
The only word usage I doubted is the use of the word “include” but then the report enumerates all of the seven.
The other is the lack of reference for the dateline such as name of place, date, and news source. This normally appears at the beginning of a news item.
i guess, the total deaths in Mexico is 27 and not 26…
The error is in paragraph 3- the issue is on clarity-
“The other seven countries that have reported laboratory-confirmed cases with no deaths include Austria (1), Canada (13), Germany (3), Israel (2), New Zealand (3), Spain (4) and Britain (5), the agency said.”
This signifies that all the countries have reported “laboratory-confirmed cases with no deaths” but the second paragraph states that the US and Mexico had cases with death.
The title seems like a question: WHO confirms 148 swine flu cases in nine countries?
The error ’s in the first paragraph…the last part shouldn’t have mentioned UN because WHO was the
agency that confirmed the report.Thank you.
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