Merseymart Newspaper

I am not a big reader of newspapers or magazines so as yet I have failed to find any errors in a printed publication - barring restaurant menu's of course. :-) But yesterday, the 27th January 2011 Merseymart newspaper (a local Liverpool newspaper) was staring at me begging to be read, so I though why not? I'll give it a go.

In this printed paper I managed to find 3 errors, which I suppose isn't too bad when you think about how much content there is in a newspaper. One of them was an advert so the paper themselves couldn't really be blamed, though had it been checked properly, maybe they could have had it changed.

Anyway here goes. To the left is the offending advert. Now there is nothing wrong with the language (that I noticed) but I'm thinking that maybe they should have updated their advert for a spot in a newspaper in January. As you will see, this company is offering guaranteed delivery for Christmas if ordered NOW! Well I should bloody well hope so really, it's 11 months away! Obviously this has been left on from their November/December 2010 advert, but it's a silly mistake to make!











The article to the right is about a man who tried to hold up numerous bookies with a vacuum cleaner he pretended was a shotgun. The mistake is in the second paragraph, 4th line down and is the simple mistake of thinking of two different ways to write a sentence and part of both comes out - the sentence reads 'Steve McCouid carried out a two-day reign of terror across Liverpool last month, raiding three bookies with his the attachment, which he kept in a plastic bag, pretending it was a shotgun.' I'm guessing no-one bought this act since he failed to successfully rob any of them. Anyway the error comes where the author writes his and the next to each other in the sentence, obviously having not decided whether to write 'with his attachment' or 'with the attachment'. Though I believe the latter option sounds the best.

This final article is a reader offer to go and stay in the Waldorf Hotel for a 'ridiculously low price.' The error here is a missing word in the first paragraph. The article should ideally begin with "It's a real treat..." A small, silly error but it slipped through the net yet again!

Typo - Daily Mail website

I was advised by my friend Becca that if I wanted to find errors then I need look no further than the Daily Mail website. So today, I decided to take her advice and have a look. I picked a story at random and immediately found an error. The story was about Jeremy Bamber and you can read the full article here

The paragraph in question is : Bamber, 50, believes large number of police officers tarnished crime scene at 1985 murder of five of his family memebrs
As the blog title suggests, this is just a typo, but one not checked before hitting the 'go live' button - the word members has been spelt incorrectly.

There is another error on here which is just stupid really and has been commented on at the bottom of the article. They show two pictures of two completely different rooms, yet claim they are the same room. Take a look for yourself and see what you think...

Spelling Error - Pet Health Advice

This error was spotted by my friend and colleague Melissa - thanks Mel for sending this to me.

The error was found in an email sent to Mel from Pet Health Advice - the email itself was was entitled January Pet Health Advice - Arthritis in Dogs. The sentence containing the error is as follows:

'In this issue of my regular pet health advice newsletter I've got loads of useful information adout arthritis in dogs, including how to diagnose, treat and prevent this condition. I hope this is useful, and as always, please get in touch if you have any questions.'

The error comes when the author wrote 'adout' rather than 'about'. I don't think this can be completely classed as a typo as the d and b keys aren't next to each other. In fact I found it quite difficult to make myself type adout. But I also don't think the author didn't know how to spell about, it was just a simple error made, but again, one that was not checked before being sent out.

Brand new Post number 1

Hello

My first new post for this blog was supplied by my friend and colleague Rob. The error (most probably a typo) was found on the Sky News website on an article about the eruption of Shinmoedake Volcano in Japan - here is the link

The mistake is right at the very end of the article: 'The volano interior was created by the iconic 1960s film set designer Sir Ken Adam and built at Pinewood Studios in England'

Probably not noticed by a quick read through of the article but it was spotted by keen-eyed Rob - The word 'volcano' should have a c in it, which the author managed to do throughout the rest of the article, so as I said earlier, probably just a typo.

There was also another part of the article which gave me pause when I read it and that was the use of the word 'unpassable'. To me that doesn't sound right and impassable is probably what should have been used and it would seem Microsoft Word and Outlook agree with me, as does google which asked me if I meant 'impassable' after typing 'unpassable' into the search box. However, there are online dictionaries that offer a definition of 'unpassable':

Adj.

1.

unpassable - incapable of being passed             impassable

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

 Taken from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

The word is obviously commonly used but it still doesn't feel right to me and think I will continue to use 'impassable'.
What are your thoughts on this?

And thanks again to Rob for passing over a mistake he found :-) I hope others will do the same

Old post 7

Spelling Errors - NHS Discounts AND Moneysupermarket.com email

Hello all

Another 2 emails with mistakes have found their way into my inbox. To be fair, I'm finding now that I am scrutinising these emails for mistakes, so I'm finding more things that I may possibly have skimmed over and not noticed a couple of months ago. But it just goes to show that if you look hard enough, mistakes are everywhere.

This is the second time I have found a mistake on the NHS discounts email and this time it is on an advert for Superbreak

If you look under the word 'Romance?' The first option is 'Diner deals'. Now my first thought was "yay I've found another one - this should be dinner". But then I did take a moment to think about it and check it out and make sure they didn't actually mean 'diner deals' - though I'm not sure somewhere like 'OK Diner' (if it's still going) would be the first choice for a romantic night out. But anyway I followed the link to the website and lo and behold they had a section there called 'Dinner Deals'. This mistake is probably just a typo, but even so, it still should have been checked.

Also, a first for my blog, there is a small second mistake on this advert: luxury hotels and country escapes are two separate options so should therefore have a comma between them. Something small, but someone could be very disappointed to discover that they won't be getting a deal on a luxury hotel in the country :-)

On the plus side, they used the word 'your' correctly

Like the email above, this is the second time I have found a mistake on a Moneysupermarket.com email. This time it is a Santander advert:

Focus On...

Santander's ZERO Current Account
- Santander's market-leading ZERO Current Account is now available to more people. Not only is if fee-free and offering 5% interest on balances up to £2,500, but new customers also receive a £100 switching bonus. So is it time you made the move and got more from your current account?

Not the easiest one to find as it is such a small mistake, again probably a typo. The offending sentence above reads 'Not only is if fee-free and offering...' but it should be 'Not only is it fee-free and offering...'

Come on people - pull yourself together!

Old Post 6

Word Usage Error - Moneysupermarket.com

Another one? So quickly? I know I know, it's terrible - all these errors cropping up!

This time the culprit is an email from Moneysupermarket.com that I received today:

"Millions of people are facing pay freezes this year. If your one of them there are things you can do to give yourself a pay rise and boost your net income by more than £5000. Read on to find out more..."

This is another case of bad English - the second sentence reads "If your one of them" when in fact it should read "If you're one of them". This one is such a simple mistake though and all it takes is a little thought to get it right. If you read the sentence out loud and it could read 'you are' then it's always 'you're'.

I am definitely beginning to believe that all the people who would normally check emails/advertisements etc, to be sent out to the public, have disappeared off the face of the Earth! Either that or I am just beginning to notice it more and more now I have started this section on the blog...who knows? While it provides material for me, I'm happy :-)

Old Post 5

Word usage error - best buy

Hello all

Today while idly looking at laptops I went to the Best Buy website and came across this beauty of a mistake:

eMachines eME442 15.6" Laptop - AMD V Series, 250GB, 2GB Memory

Model: EME442

Perfect for basic everyday computing, this eMachines 15.6" Laptop is equipt with a 250GB and 2GB Memory 

This error screamed out at me and then I proceeded to tell my friend in the office, very pleased that once again I had been so observant.

As you can see a word is used that is just very poor English - "EQUIPT" come on people, really??? Obviously this word should be "Equipped". I am now starting to believe that all proofreaders have been fired and there is no-one out there to check out for these kinds of errors. On the plus side if I ever decide I want to be a proofreader, maybe I could send them to this blog as my CV? :-)

Old Post 4

Typing error

It would seem I'm on a roll at the moment, noticing all these small mistakes and the following comes from another email I received; this one from The Trafford Centre. It won't let me actually copy and paste the small advert on here as a whole as it won't save as a picture, so for today you will have to make do with a copy and paste from the email with the error in question, and trust I didn't just make it up :-)

"Don't miss out on this fabulous treat, only available this week Tuesday-Friday 11am-1pm*. Plus, the fist 100 people to pick up the booklet will receive a free beauty goody bag. *While stocks last."

Can you spot the mistake? It's only a small one - 'Plus the fist 100 people' should be 'Plus the first 100 people'. As I said, only a small error, but it just shows that companies are not proofreading their work fully - either that or they don't have very good proofreaders :-)

Let me know if you see anything out there

Old Post 3

Word usage error

Hello again

Yesterday I came across another error - this time not on a menu. This came as part of an email from NHS discounts and part of this email was an advertisemernt for a charity helping with debt management - this is the advert:

Hands up if you can see the problem...

I'm actually quite shocked that nobody seemed to check this advert before it was sent to thousands of people. As you will have noticed 'course' isn't the correct word to use in this instance and in fact should be 'cause'. Unfortunately this isn't an error that can be put down to a simple typing mistake and was probably down to someone not thinking about it properly. Ah well never mind, it provided me with another blog post so I'm happy :-)

Old Post 2

Spelling error

I came across another spelling error today - and once again on a menu! This time it was on an online menu for What's Cooking at the Albert Dock. This spelling mistake was only made once, that I noticed, and it wasn't a food item. Unfortunately I am unable to copy and paste the sentence in but it reads 'Children's Meals are suitalbe for children up to 11 years.' As you can see, the word 'suitable' has been misspelled, or there has been a mis-type. A simple mistake yes but one I wanted to mention (especially as I haven't noticed anything else out there for a while lol).

Old Post 1

Spelling error

I've decided it might be fun to write about any spelling or grammar errors I find out there in the world - especially being an aspiring writer, it's good to be aware of these things. Although I imagine there are so many mistakes out there - more than we notice day to day as the human brain has the capacity to read things you expect to see rather than what's actually there staring you in the face, so it's very easy to miss these mistakes.

This one I found was a few weeks ago in an Italian restaurant called Quattros and as you will see from the picture, they misspelled the word 'cheese', writing instead 'chesse'. Now this I did immediately notice but then I did get worried that this was some Italian version of the word but I googled it and nothing was forthcoming so I came to the conclusion that it was a mistake. I apologise that you will have to turn your head to read this as I don't know why it's uploaded like this when it is the correct way up at the source, but never mind, the error is still legible.

I'm curious in a situation such as this whether the restaurant are aware of the mistake, or if it has passed by unnoticed. I imagine that even if it had been noticed, it would be too expensive to replace all their menus just to change this one spelling, which most people will probably read as cheese and not notice as that is what you expect to read after the word mozzarella.

I also have a vague memory of reading a really poor piece of writing with many spelling and grammatical errors and I remember this being in a notable publication - however I can't for the life of me remember where it was so I think I possibly dreamed it :-) Oh well, I will report back if I realise what it was.

I realise writing about spelling and grammar errors leaves me completely vulnerable to getting comments on any mistakes I make, but I am open and willing to hear back on these and will promptly fix as I know I am as fallible as the people who make the mistakes I will write about. In the meantime I hope you enjoy these mistakes I come across.

Welcome

Dear all

Welcome to my new blog, focusing on the mistakes and downright bad English that can be found in various outlets for the written word. I seem to have found a lot recently, enough to warrant a separate blog from my other one. The errors I have found in recent weeks have mostly come from emails from well-known companies, restaurant menus and a new one, sent to me by a friend, in an online article.

I will import all my previous posts in this area to keep them all together. I would like to stress now that my English isn't perfect and I don't know all the rules and my intention is not to berate or preach, just to inform. I will also inevitably make spelling errors and typos myself.

In the case of publications, I can understand how many of the mistakes are made, it's very easy for your fingers to slip on the keyboard and hit an extra letter, but what I don't understand is why these emails aren't checked before being sent en masse to the public.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my posts and please get in touch if you find any of your own - just send me the error, along with where you found it and I will post it on here - giving you all the credit of course!