This post is a little round-up of things I've spotted on the web during the past few weeks that are good candidates for the friendly urging, Write it right!
Headline for an email from an online retailer:
"Have you seen our new innovations?"
I couldn't help myself. I emailed them to point out that innovations are new by definition. They replied that this is true and what they meant was that these innovations appear in their catalogue for the first time. OK, that made me feel a little pedantic.
Next was an email from a personal development speaker, about excellence. The headline was:
"Your either remarkable or invisible."
Hmm, not a lot of excellence in spelling there. Here's the next one:
"...my report "How to Ethically Tap into the Mind of Your Prospects and Customers Where Real Decisions are Made, and Fortunes are Won or Lost"
The problem is the word ethically. It would be more correct to write "how to tap ethically into the mind..." (and it should be minds, because your prospects and customers don't have a collective mind). Probably that comma between "Made" and "and" isn't necessary, either, but I strew commas around with such wild abandon that I'm reluctant to criticize anybody else on that subject.
Getting back to thetapping ethically, the rule is to put the adverb after the verb. I see this rule broken so often that I wonder whether it's a lost cause. I've caught myself doing it, too, and I'm sure there are examples all over this blog of times I didn't catch myself.
Then there was this rather alarming headline:
Ron Paul Killed in Last Night's Presidential Debate
You would have thought that would be big news, but this was the first I'd heard of it. It turns out the headline writer was of the opinion that Mr Paul did outstandingly well in the debate. He was using the vernacular of stand-up comedians who sometimes say, "I killed them last night," if they got a lot of laughs. They also say "I slayed them." I get the impression comedians have a lot of unresolved hostility.
Whenever I write about grammar or punctuation, at least one error finds its way into the post but eludes my proofreading. Let me know if you find it.
