IreneDon't these people employ proofreaders?
May 10th 2008 15:49
When I was a little girl, I saw billboards advertising some kind of allergy medication all over the city. Its tagline was "[product name] let's you stay alert." Yes, it actually had the incorrect use of an apostrophe amblazoned emblazoned in large print over all its ads. It should be "lets you stay alert", of course. I wish I could remember the product, because it'd be great to see if they ever did correct that error in the ad campaign. (By the way, if you lived in southern Ontario in the mid-to-late 80s, and you actually know what ads I'm talking about, I'd love to hear from you.)
Many of us might notice bad copy in the media, especially the internet, but here are some of the worse (that is, funnier) examples that caught my attention:
Fergie thinks she's a dutchess [sic]. Do duchesses shop at Frederick's of Hollywood? I'm just asking. Poor Fergie. She makes terrible music, has been accused of being drunk and, um, having accidents on stage, and now it seems that she can't spell. Didn't anyone working on the album art notice the mistake?
Would you take writing advice from someone who can't spell "devastating"? Also, this is arguable, depending on who you talk to, but in my opinion the word "comprise" (see the bottom of the image) is used incorrectly here. X cannot be comprised of Y and Z; X comprises Y and Z. X can be composed of Y and Z.
"Who's Tom Morrow and why does he get all the jobs?" (Quote courtesy of my colleague.) All right, regardless of what we might think of Hillary Rodham Clinton's politics, I think we can all safely assume that she knows how to spell "tomorrow". I wonder if she noticed the error, and if she did, what was she thinking? Is she a grammar nazi? I can picture her as a grammar nazi.
Okay, so this is an intentional error, but I thought it worth mentioning. Stephen Colbert's book is called I Am America (And So Can You!). Colbert is--or at least his team of writers is--responsible for "truthiness" as well, a useful neologism if I ever heard one.
Fergie thinks she's a dutchess [sic]. Do duchesses shop at Frederick's of Hollywood? I'm just asking. Poor Fergie. She makes terrible music, has been accused of being drunk and, um, having accidents on stage, and now it seems that she can't spell. Didn't anyone working on the album art notice the mistake?
Would you take writing advice from someone who can't spell "devastating"? Also, this is arguable, depending on who you talk to, but in my opinion the word "comprise" (see the bottom of the image) is used incorrectly here. X cannot be comprised of Y and Z; X comprises Y and Z. X can be composed of Y and Z.
"Who's Tom Morrow and why does he get all the jobs?" (Quote courtesy of my colleague.) All right, regardless of what we might think of Hillary Rodham Clinton's politics, I think we can all safely assume that she knows how to spell "tomorrow". I wonder if she noticed the error, and if she did, what was she thinking? Is she a grammar nazi? I can picture her as a grammar nazi.
Okay, so this is an intentional error, but I thought it worth mentioning. Stephen Colbert's book is called I Am America (And So Can You!). Colbert is--or at least his team of writers is--responsible for "truthiness" as well, a useful neologism if I ever heard one.
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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Comment by Pat
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Comment by Irene
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Grammar Matters
Pat, lol, good catch. I had caught another typo when I looked over the post, but missed this one. D'oh! (It figures that I'd be remiss in this post, of course.)