Apples and oranges
We’ve talked many times about “style;” not necessarily right or wrong, but making your work consistent.
These four are from the same show. They say: A Canadian city and province (abbreviated). A Canadian province and country (spelled out). An American city and state (abbreviated). An American physical feature and state (spelled out). C’mon!
See above.
Same thing. You can say, Titusville, Fla. Or Cocoa Beach, Fla. Or Melbourne, Fla. They’re cities. The Space Coast isn’t.
“WA” means this player is from Perth, Washington. Right? No. This player is from Perth, state of Western Australia. Like you knew that.
In his career, Eliot saw many a prosecutor’s “closeout memo.” It didn’t say, “We’re convinced this person committed no crime” or “We’re convinced no crime took place.” It said there wasn’t enough evidence to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that a crime was committed. That is NOT the same as being cleared.
Way back in our introductory segment, in January 2021, we told the anecdote about the trusty squire told to kill “James and Guinevere’s son,” and asked how many people he should kill. This is in the same category. Everywhere, we see phrases such as “Abe and Louie’s” and “Ben and Jerry’s.” Usually context makes it clear. But someone (Eliot) would argue that this could be read as, “Democrats sound the alarm on Trump, and also sound the alarm on Musk’s government takeover.”
It’s bad enough this shows up in bad TV. Now it’s in the newspaper. “Members of the community” is, well, everyone. You might as well say “humanoids” or “earthlings” or “sentient beings.” Just say “people.”
Hundreds of people. Thousands of people. Millions of people. We count by bodies. Not weight.
Remember: “fewer” for things and “less” for volume. In this case, 94 percent fewer lines.
We remind you that an implosion primarily is a specific scientific event, mostly limited to vacuum tubes and unstable stars. This building didn’t suck itself into debris. It just plain collapsed.
Folks aren’t quibbling about grammar when they’re loading up on concert merch. This is a U.S. state abbreviation followed by a country abbreviation. Or do we let this one go? Readers?
And we go to the video archives for Segment 82: "Womp bomp a loo-bomp, a-lomp bomp bomp!"
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!
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