Who Is Proofreading (or Typing) Over There at N&R?
It's "Losing", Not "Loosing"
Okay, this is truly a pet peeve of mine. In reading today's online article in the News & Record, I notice the caption under a photograph of Tyler Hansbrough. Here it is, cut and pasted: North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough talks to reporters after loosing to Kansas.
You "lose" a game. Your shoelace is "loose". "Loosing" is the verb form of "loose", which is very rarely used. "I'm losing my mind." "They were losing at the half." Budd and I struggled to find a usage for "loosing" because it's awkward and usually can be better said otherwise, as in "loosening". "He sat there, loosening his shoelaces."
Found another mistake in another article about a woman's purse being snatched. "He was last seen driving a 1990s model teal green Buice LeSabre sedan. " Buice? I've never heard of that automobile brand.
N&R just ran an editorial entitled "Our County's Children Need To Learn To Read Well". I know we all make typographical errors. And I'm really not trying to deliberately criticize N&R, a paper that I read daily and frequently enjoy. I'm just saying, for the kids' sake, learn the difference between "loosing" and "losing," and print it correctly. That's elementary school grammar, just like the usage of "too", "two" and "to" or "their", "there" and "they're". Knowing the difference between these tricky words is an important part of reading comprehension, as well as good writing skills, both of which are essential for the success of students at all grade levels.









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