HelperElfMissy 42 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Often among the threads we find little errors that get pointed out - incorrect use of words, spelling errors (sometimes just typo's), and grammatically incorrect sentences... But what hope do we have?! I am routinely finding examples in mainstream media news stories - JOURNO's who can't spell! Let's keeping a collection of their most stupid mistakes shall we? I will make us feel better about our own! First up..taken from ABC Online posted Saturday Dec 12th, 2009... Massive turnout for Walk Against Warming "... The crowd was a see of colour, with protesters carrying placards banners and even wearing costumes. " Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 haha, maybe it was at the Vatican and it was a Holy-See of colour!! Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Mama, Do not get me started! Simple fact is that they rely on the smell-chucker to find errors, and we all know that they are notoriously BAD at finding words wrongly placed. Most newspapers no longer employ proof-readers, whose job it was to find and eliminate these errors before they went to press. +1 used to do that for the local rag (now best known as the Northern Daily MISLeader) but they don;t have that position any more, nor do they have sub-editors who, if they were halfway decent, fix the errors that journos made. Journalists now type direct to the typesetting computer, no interference from anyone except the editor, who may or may not bother to look. Link to post Share on other sites
gareth_oau 2 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 We got a letter sent to us by a business offering their (there? they're?) LOL services. It had so many mistakes in it, that the boss circled all the errors in red, and then the letter was circulated around the office for a chuckle. nobody can remember the name of the company or what services they offered... Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Originally Posted By: gareth_oau We got a letter sent to us by a business offering their (there? they're?) LOL services. It had so many mistakes in it, that the boss circled all the errors in red, and then the letter was circulated around the office for a chuckle. nobody can remember the name of the company or what services they offered... there's nothing wrong with this use of "their" Link to post Share on other sites
kokodoko 67 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 done get mee started on speeling in teh medya. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 "use less plastic bags" freakin gov idiots Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted December 13, 2009 Author Share Posted December 13, 2009 And a pearler from today! WA drivers ignore drink driving message. "It's a very worrying situation when people drive think that they can drive on the freeway and get away with it," she said I think that drive is supposed to be out of there....but goddamn those motorist who think they are entitled to drive on the freeways! What do they think they are for! ....oh....oh.....they probably meant to say that it is a worrying situation when people drink and then think they can drive on the freeway and get away with it. But is it any more or less worrying if it is the freeway or a highway or a suburban road beside a school...?! Why am I punishing myself by reading this trash! Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Glutton for punishment, is why! Link to post Share on other sites
samandfee 1 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Hate to be picky......but should it not be....Its pure and simple,the truth is rarely pure and never simple. ooops Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 no, it's "it's" Link to post Share on other sites
Sciclone 2 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 I think it should have actually been drink.... But I too am a stickler for spelling and grammar. One auto blog I read has some people who regularly write for magazines and such, and their spelling and grammar is woeful. The other one that really gets me going is (predominately Americans) misusing an. Simple rule to remember - If the following word starts with a consonant it's "a", "an" if it's a vowel. And no, Y and H aren't vowels. The only exception to this would be when your are spelling an abbreviation. E.G. I was looking at an RSS feed the other day. <- Here the R is pronounced as Arr, so an is acceptable, otherwise you would have to pronounce the a as AY to counteract it. /rant Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 And the title should be Grammatical errors... Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Originally Posted By: Sciclone I think it should have actually been drink.... But I too am a stickler for spelling and grammar. One auto blog I read has some people who regularly write for magazines and such, and their spelling and grammar is woeful. The other one that really gets me going is (predominately Americans) misusing an. Simple rule to remember - If the following word starts with a consonant it's "a", "an" if it's a vowel. And no, Y and H aren't vowels. The only exception to this would be when your are spelling an abbreviation. E.G. I was looking at an RSS feed the other day. <- Here the R is pronounced as Arr, so an is acceptable, otherwise you would have to pronounce the a as AY to counteract it. /rant and quite simply your rant is wrong. "an" is used to precede a vowel phoneme or dipthong, whilst "a" is used to precede a consonant phenome or dipthong. Why do we say an historic moment, and not a historic moment? Because the initial sound if of a vowel phoneme, regardless of it being h. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 Originally Posted By: RobBright And the title should be Grammatical errors... I started out with 'Grammatical Errors and spelling mistakes in professional media articles' but it was FAR too long a title! Link to post Share on other sites
gareth_oau 2 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver Originally Posted By: gareth_oau We got a letter sent to us by a business offering their (there? they're?) LOL services. It had so many mistakes in it, that the boss circled all the errors in red, and then the letter was circulated around the office for a chuckle. nobody can remember the name of the company or what services they offered... there's nothing wrong with this use of "their" sorry TB, my mislead, I was just showing that 'their' has 3 variations, all can be spelled correctly, but spell-checker wont necessarily correct the wrong one Link to post Share on other sites
gareth_oau 2 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 I al'so hate the mi'su'se of apo'strophe's' Link to post Share on other sites
Sciclone 2 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Originally Posted By: RobBright and quite simply your rant is wrong. "an" is used to precede a vowel phoneme or dipthong, whilst "a" is used to precede a consonant phenome or dipthong. Why do we say an historic moment, and not a historic moment? Because the initial sound if of a vowel phoneme, regardless of it being h. It's diphthong. (Dipthong is an obsolete spelling) While my rant may be incorrect from a strictly phonetics point of view, the premise is still the same. It is not acceptable for a supposedly trained journalist to write "an sausage" or other incorrect uses of "an" before a hard-sounded consonant. Besides, I've always been taught "a historic moment", because the h is a harder sound. Same as I get annoyed with people calling them erbs, not herbs. Link to post Share on other sites
mitchpee 10 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 who kneeds propor grammer anyways? Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Lemme find a post on another forum I use, and you'll understand why. Quote: Maybe I'll take U up on that challenge MATE! Although, I for one do not buy titles BRAND NEW or at full rate JP or Import releases - FACT! My price range for games is generally 0-4,000yen...PERIOD! U know sth.......In reality How could you keep up a Eng support game list anyhow unless you had support of many others who feel the same way as me. Yes Y in HELL's name would U want to pay Full rates for a JP release taking the chance that it is not in Eng - of course U wouldn't.....Me neither. Thats Y my 360 and XBOX1 library is made up of USED(as new) nice price titles. But then again......come to think of it....the PS3 community over there seems to be much more considerate in accumulating the Eng support INFO....likely for those who generally pay less for their games. But if a LONE wolf were to accumulate such INFO for everyone's benefit....the only true realistic way of doing that would be to RUN 360 (JP) Iso's... purely for the specific intent to find out if the game does support English. Considering that the publishers,distributors don't bother to print such info on the Inlay in the first place.....If these people just considerated printing a little ,TINY, area on the back quoting 'BI-LINGUAL'...jeez ....that would be so helpful to us buying GAIJIN GAMERS...dont U agree... The asain releases do......!!!! I mean Its printed on movie dvd's etc Y not for GAMES...its still Media aint it. If the title includes other languages then freakin say so ..if its ONLY in Japanese then say so too! Its all down to the Self-conceited attitude that Foreigners here are an extreme minority, so Y should we UPSET the masses by saying this product has ENGLISH in plain view on the cover. And besides....The PS3 Inlay design has been changed to facilitate the NEW PS3 logo design....so If that can be achieved then Y not include the same info area that the ASIAN releases have into the JP releases....U must see my point????? And before U ask...I have already suggested to SONY and MICROSOFT (at the Tokyo game show) that ALL JP releases should have such INFO printed on them......And those I spoke too said they would pass on the INFO to Marketing...but I doubt it! :twisted: :evil: :arrow: :roll: END of LINE Checkout 'AnoyedGamer' at ustream.com U might find him interesting.....Marcus Beer!!! :? :x Link to post Share on other sites
mitchpee 10 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 People disappoint me entirely too often. Link to post Share on other sites
gerard 6 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Context is everything. Rules are not important. You don't write an academic paper like that. And likewise, you don't speak like you're reading an academic paper when you're drinking beer with your mates. The net is really interesting and rich because it's written form but it's more like spoken English in terms of structure, plus there are all kinds of norms that are unique to the chat-room type English too. That guy chose to write like that for a reason. Maybe it's coz everyone on that site writes in a casual style like that. Or maybe he's trying to make a point. Maybe he's saying F-you other members of the form worry about grammar too much. The point is you can't say if it's right or wrong without looking at the context and intent of the writer/speaker. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 Fair point Ger. You also need to look at the posters age. I am aghast when I read any of the pieces that my son's friends post on his Facebook page. A few abbreviations here and there are one thing ... but these kids speak (type) a whole other language!. EG: Quote: WTF U n00b! NEway c u l8r @ skool Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 see you later at school. What a misfit. Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Originally Posted By: samandfee Hate to be picky......but should it not be....Its pure and simple,the truth is rarely pure and never simple. ooops That's a direct quote from Oscar - take it up with him! Link to post Share on other sites
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