US Style = bashing cars to front / rear, shoe horning car into space
www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8946491/A-masterclass-in-parallel-parking.html
If this was part of our driving tests there would not be a problem for teenage insurance - there would be no new drivers!
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Should use left foot braking. Somebody has to say it.
Why do cars/lorries/trains/planes always "plough into" whatever it is they hit? Iffy will know.
My theory is carp journalism. Or is it a standing instruction from editors?
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>> My theory is carp journalism. Or is it a standing instruction from editors?
>>
It is, in its way, a bit of a throwaway story, so the task of putting a piece together will be given to whatever junior hack happens to be in the newsroom at the time.
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The Telegraph story doesn't use the phrase 'plough into', it speaks of the driver 'patiently manoeuvring' his car.
And the hack can spell 'manoeuvring', which is more than most people can do on a certain forum I frequent.
I avoid phrases such as 'plough into' - the story should be strong enough to speak for itself.
There's also the risk of introducing inaccuracy.
Some hacks do use such phrases.
As Ian alludes to (above), part of the reason is many people now doing my job are not trained adequately.
One phrase that annoys me is 'horrified onlookers' in the case of a road accident or street fight.
The onlookers may not have been horrified by what they saw, so unless the journalist has interviewed one or two and they declared themselves to be 'horrified', it's wrong to assume they were.
An example was a body found in a river by two fishermen, the paper duly declared the men to be 'horrified' by what they saw.
Except one of the men turned out to be an undertaker who was, as might be expected, not fazed by the sight of a body.
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My wife said that I am not allowed to comment!
;-)
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It's unthinking use of a metaphor that is no longer appropriate.
When an out of control vehicle "ploughs" into a crowd of people, the analogy with a real plough is obvious and horrifically striking.
But bashing into and crushing is not ploughing.
"Bulldozing" is better, or in the parking example, "shunting" would be even better.
Traditional American cars used to be built to take real shunting.
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Parallel parking masterclass - US style - Manatee
