We covered this geographical unforced error way back in November 2021. The term “XXX, FL” refers to a city. Not a single structure or house. You can say, “Branson, MO.” You can say, “Eugene, Oregon.” You can’t say, “Times Square, NY.” You can’t say, “Arrowhead Stadium, MO.” You can’t say, “Golden Gate Bridge, CA.” Or, “Graceland, TN.” Or, “Eiffel Tower, France.” Mar-a-Lago is an estate in the town of Palm Beach. So it’s “Palm Beach, FL.” Period.

Ohhh. The dreaded misplaced modifier. We’ve dealt with this plague many times, most recently in May 2024. It’s not your personal emergency device that wants to be independent. Correct: “To be truly independent, you need your personal emergency device to work on the go.”

We don’t know if there was a language barrier or these people were trying to be cute.

We covered this way back in September 2021. “Alumnus” is accepted for a graduate of either gender. “Alumni” is plural. C’mon. This is a college, for goodness’ sake.

We previously explained this. The hyphen is shorthand. It says, “from 1:30 to 2:00 pm.” So just delete “from.”

Hall of fame

We first posted this in September 2021. We’ve posted it every year around the same time. Four years later, week after week, day after day, It still runs in newspapers exactly like this. If you are a first timer: This says ten million dollars dollars.

And we go to the video archives for Segment 70: My pleasure! https://youtu.be/vE0YNVWZzd4?si=y43zjt9VYbg1f9Y5

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, menus, TV news graphics, 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 can credit you properly. 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!