A grammatical perfect storm!
A site is a location. The right word here is sights. And a weather system doesn’t have the ability to set its sights on anything. It has no sights.
Florida was bracing in the summer of 2024 for a storm that forecasters said absolutely was going to hit the state somewhere (which, sadly, it did.) Not potentially. What was potential was whether it would be a major hurricane. So: “Florida braces for potentially major hurricane to strike this week.”
When you clean up an area, you’re taking part in a cleanup. They got it right in the upper line. Go figure. Oh, and they misspelled residents.
We know you’re excited. But do you really need to say you’re number one, you’re the winner, and you’re the best? Just say it once. We’d use the “best of” one.
This is one of our all-star chronics. For the eleventy-billionth time: These say some person definitely robbed the store and definitely shot someone. Not allegedly. Not according to police. And not suspected of. Then it calls them suspects. They can’t be both. Just say: “Police say they are searching for person who robbed” and “Shooter gets on bike…” Don’t worry that you’re convicting someone. You don’t know who it is yet! When police name an actual individual whom they suspect of a crime, that person becomes the suspect. Get it?
Items before the Assizes:
Oyez, Oyez, Oyez! On the docket:
We submit that "tight knit" and "close knit," in connection with communities and neighborhoods, is both a cliché and an "obviosity." How do you know it's a tight community? What would constitute a not-tight community?
The Rules Committee (Lou Ann) opines: “Perfectly good adjective but I can see how it could be misused or abused. To be used appropriately, knittedness would have to be clear from context.”
And we go to the video archives for Segment 83: “It’s People!”
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!