Recently, part of the Horribly Wrong Team went to New England to see leaves showing traditional bright colors -- and also saw signs showing traditional grammatical mistakes!
Perhaps if they didn’t expend unnecessary apostrophes, they could afford to stay open on Tuesdays!
Another sign not making cents! A tenth of a penny? A fourth of a penny? They meant a dime and a quarter, didn’t they?
Hey! Let’s make up a word! And then use the correct spelling right next to it!
Scott Simmons
We’re sure someone spent a lot of time making this sign. Did no one notice?
Erica Beresh
Yeah. This one too.
And we go to the video archives for Segment 3: Tight Writing. https://youtu.be/O2IlgufaFnA
From the mailbag:
Can I suggest there be a special place in hell for those authors who use the word "smirk" in the place of the word "smile"? I have been seeing this in dozens of books I have read in the past several years. Listen up, authors! Words have meaning. Words are your stock in trade. LEARN the meaning of your words. Unless you really do mean to knock your readers right out of the spell of your stories and force them to never buy your books again. Also, seeing as how I am on a rant, people who use "should of" instead of "should've", and not in a quaint-example-of-ignorant-country-dialect way, but as straight up normal speech, also need to end up in that same corner of hell. — Brigitta Veseu, Palm Coast, Fla.
Readers: "Something Went Horribly Wrong" features samples of bad writing we see nearly every day. You can participate! Be our duly deputized “grammar police:” Your motto: “To protect and correct.” Send in your photos of store signs, street signs, newspaper headlines, tweets, and so on. It doesn’t have to be a grammatical error. It can be just what we call “cowardly writing.” Include your name and home town so we properly can credit you. You're free to add a comment, although we reserve the right to edit or omit. Now get out there! Send to Eliot@eliotkleinberg.com
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NOTE: Eliot and Lou Ann are available for speaking engagements, and can travel. Reach us through the comments section. Just think of all of your employees getting back to work on a Monday, their heads filled with all the ways we’ve shown them to be better communicators!