Curved handles
Friday’s Bristol Live/Post had a piece on an appeal to the public for information on an incident that happened a while ago in Easton. The vital part of the appeal reads as follows:
Investigating officers have released a picture of a man, who was riding a silver road bike with curved handles, who they would like to identify in connection with the assault. They said it took place on Stapleton Road on Wednesday, August 7.
Curved handles? Since when has a bicycle had handles, let alone curved ones.
At first, your correspondent believed this was just another of Reach plc ‘journalists’ publicly displaying his/her ignorance of the English language, bearing in mind the fact that the correct use of terminology – le mot juste as the French would have it – is vital for comprehension and a lack of confusion on the part of the reader.
The police press office also provided a useful picture of the suspect, plus bicycle complete with those mysterious curved handles.
Anyway, your ‘umble scribe went looking for Plod’s original press release on the Avon & Somerset Police website.
.The following sentence can be read therein:
The man pictured is described as white, slim, in his 20s or 30s and has dark hair and facial hair. He is seen wearing a black Adidas hooded top and tracksuit bottoms. He is in possession of a silver road bike with curved handles {sic].
That’s right! Those curved handles actually originated at police headquarters out at Portishead and not in Bristol’s infamous Temple Way Ministry of Truth.
This is curious as the police allegedly require high standards from their staff as a recent advertisement for a communications officer reveals.
You will have strong oral and written communications skills, an exceptional eye for detail…
The use of the phrase curved handles does show that the author has written communications skills but not strong ones, whilst the lack of an exceptional eye for detail is displayed by an ignorance of the importance of the correct use of terminology.
Words matter, except in Plod’s press room, whilst the ‘journalist’ responsible for copying and pasting the original press release should have been diligent enough to notice the original error and not repeated it, but as a former sub-editor cum media studies lecturer friend pointed out, today’s media studies student (and by implication graduates. Ed.) do not have a very high standard of English.
Finally, hose curved handles are known to most folk outside the police press office and Bristol Live/Post as drop handlebars. 😀