Consistent Style Sheet Eliminates Value Judgments

Consistent Style Sheet Eliminates Value Judgments Consistent Style Sheet Eliminates Value Judgments Consistent Style Sheet Eliminates Value Judgments By Maeve Maddox One of our readers, Pankaj, has asked for clarification on the posting called The Gentleman Fled on Foot. Was I addressing a matter of diction, or was I advocating the denial of respect for persons in unfortunate circumstances? Some publications and newsrooms have a policy of referring to people by surname only, once the full name has been mentioned. Others have a policy of adding the honorific to the surname every timeor for a set number of timesafter the full name has been mentioned. In either case, I see no problem. When a policy is in place, the writer knows whether to use Mr/Ms/Rev/Dr with the surname, or to go with plain Jones. My post was concerned with a practice that Ive observed often enough to regard it as a trend. Apparently many news sources have no set policy because they sometimes refer to people by surname only, and sometimes with the honorific plus surname. I first became aware of this strange practice several years ago when my dissertation adviser was murdered in his campus office. Ill call the professor Jones, and the man who killed him Smith. One of the articles published in a local paper, having named both men in the lead, went on for several columns to refer to the professor, who had a Ph.D. and was usually called Dr. Jones, as Jones, but referred to the other man as Mr. Smith each time he was mentioned. It could be that the tendency to be super-polite when talking about criminals grows from the knowledge that anyone who has yet to be convicted must be referred to as an alleged whatever. Perhaps writers who call bank robbers gentlemen are just being cautious. I dont know. In any case, the question forced me to look at why this inconsistency of diction bothers me. Ive had to conclude that Mr. Pankaj is a more accepting person than I am. In the absence of a style sheet rule, Id be inclined to leave off the Mr. when it comes to perpetrators of the more horrid crimes. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to use "on" and when to use "in"Do you "orient" yourself, or "orientate" yourself?People vs. Persons