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If I may ask: Did you find such errors in the linked article? Is this what prompted your question?

"The Hindu" (linked in the post) is one newspaper which takes these things seriously. They even have an "ombudsman" of sorts (whom they call the "Reader's Editor") and they encourage readers to write in to this person pointing out all sorts of mistakes, including grammatical [1].

Constraints of the printed page would also explain some of the "different" language which one finds in newspapers.

[1] http://www.thehindu.com/navigation/?type=static&page=contact




I did find some errors in the article, albeit many of them were in the quotes from government communications. My question was prompted by this as well as the experience I've had reading newspapers and magazines in India during visits I've made. The tone and language used in the Indian press is often quite striking when compared to other English language press.

Many of the errors were in the quotes, but there are some in the article itself. Some of the errors that stood out to me were simply the omission of the word "the", for example

"With the Microsoft Corporation deciding to stop technical assistance for Windows XP operating system next month, the Tamil Nadu government has advised all its departments to install free open source software BOSS Linux."

Just as the author uses "the" in "the Microsoft Corporation" I expect to see "the Windows XP operating system" and "the open source software BOSS Linux"

Here is another:

"many of them continued to Windows XP use as the primary operating system"

Sentences like this one stand out as well:

"The prompt for the present advisory is the Microsoft decision as a result of which security updates or technical support for Windows XP operating system would not be discontinued after April 8."


The article was just poorly proofread, that's all. The Hindu should have better editorial standards than this. p.s. I'm Indian, and I don't think any claim that this article represents 'Indian English' -- I'm not even sure what that means -- makes sense.


That sentence is indeed grammatically correct.




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