Importance of a name

Last week you had a report on the consensus of residents of Ely regarding the development of Roswell Pits. These pits are not lakes and yet your reporters repeatedly refer to them as such, which shows they are not local residents as they are never calle

Last week you had a report on the consensus of residents of Ely regarding the development of Roswell Pits.

These 'pits' are not lakes and yet your reporters repeatedly refer to them as such, which shows they are not local residents as they are never called 'lakes' by anyone who lives here, nor are they marked on the map as anything but 'pits'.

I do think your reporters should take the trouble to get the names of local areas right, and apart from anything else using the wrong name could mean that many people who might be interested in the 'pits' (fishermen for instance) wouldn't recognise a headline using the word 'lakes' and would pass it over.

Could I also ask that when you print letters, that you do not 'edit out' bits that change the meaning of a sentence by their removal? I was really pleased that you printed my letter regarding 'rubbish' in last week's edition, but by leaving out the words 'to make stock' after I had said that bones and carcasses 'can be boiled' - completely altered the meaning, suggesting in this case, that they should be buried in order to make them of less interest to flies etc (which of course it does), but that is not the primary reason for the boiling, it's a by-product of making the stock!

As a journalist you know all about the importance of words, so I'm sure you can appreciate that both the incidents I have mentioned here, show very well how subtle slight changes of meaning can come about by using a different term or simply by something's absence!

Hilary Van De Watering

St Mary's Court

Ely