Sir, On the front page of your issue of Friday, August 9th, you featured a recent Department of Education report on standards of literacy among Leaving Certificate examination students. As your reporter stated, this does indeed provide "cause for concern".
However, turning to page five of the same issue, we find a report on the threat to public health posed by something which you refer to as "flouridation". And just in case readers should interpret this as a typo in just the Theadline, the same error is repeated another five times in the body text.
While the image of local authorities pouring tons of flour into our water supplies is both intriguing and amusing, your story provides something of an ironic commentary on the department's findings.
What is wrong with you? I have recently written you a couple of letters on the subject of your abysmal standards of typography and proofreading. I do not challenge your right not to publish these; however, you have published similar comments by other readers in recent times, suggesting that I am not alone in pointing out that these standards are unacceptable in what purports to be a quality newspaper.
In your issue of August 3rd, a correspondent asked if the proofreader had become an extinct species. This is a question which The Irish Times itself seriously needs to address. -Yours, etc.,
Kensington, Rochestown, Cork.
P.S. - Just above your Department of Education story is a report on the recent Spanish flash flood disaster, in which your reporter quotes, among others, a spokesperson for the "Quay Camp" (otherwise Keycamp) company in Cork. Surely the least a reporter can do when talking to a spokesperson for any company is to get its name right! The unfortunate Leaving Cert. student would rightly be docked marks for sloppiness of this nature.