It was an Olympics-sized mistake ...

Every newspaper has its style sheet, and sometimes the style seems to get out of whack.

I've worked at newspapers that required us to say Olympics rather than Olympic because the Games are the Olympics. We had to say Olympics champion when Olympic champion sounded so much better.

I've always joked that maybe they ought to buy an Olympics-sized pool.

Every time the New York Times calls somebody "the" defensive back Joe Smith, I cringe. Is Joe the only defensive back in New York? Can't he just be defensive back Joe Smith?

My other pet peeve is All-America. Instead of saying All-American Tim Tebow, the Times calls him All-America Tim Tebow. Sounds wrong to my ear.

More editing/writing blog entries from Tom Gillispie

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers