The other day I was approached by an international charitable organization, let's call it the Unbiased Helping Hand, with a request to edit their monthly newsletter.
I said yes please. The document was around 4000 words long, the remuneration was reasonable, and – surprise, surprise – the text was quite well-written. In other words, it did not require much fuss or editing, so the reasonable remuneration turned out to be quite worthwhile. I was aware that this is an international organization, and assumed the text had to be politically-correct in every way imaginable. So I was careful with any changes I made.
In due course I received feedback on my work.
UHH, I think you've taken it too far…
Not wishing to tackle political topics on this blog, I will nonetheless point out these two questionable preferences on the part of UHH:
Gaza crossing, quoth UHH, not border crossing, because it's not exactly a border. Google "Gaza border crossing" and you'll see that such disparate news media as Al Jazeera, the BBC World Service, Haaretz, and others are quite happy with calling it a border crossing.
Gilad Shalit, quoth UHH, is the captured soldier, not the imprisoned soldier. Presumably, ever since he's been captured, he is not in captivity. Or else his captivity does not constitute a prison, which – perhaps they reason – is for civil offenders?
I did not get into an argument with them; no point. Their newsletter, their preferences.
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2 comments:
I actually prefer captured, not for any political reasons, but it sounds more natural to me in context. I don't think anyone would assume that captured doesn't include prison.
Gaza crossing is just plain silly and not descriptive.
A capture only lasts an hour or two. Fer as ahm concerned, Shalit's been imprisoned for over three years, unless someone out there has seen him roaming freely in the nearest mall within sight of his captors. You'd be hard put to find anyone, no matter how much s/he hates us, who would argue that he's not being held prisoner.
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