From the Grammar Police
The Horribly Wrong team immediately can spot AI-written pieces. It’s more than bad writing. Often it’s wrong. Did James Mason gain international acclaim even as he dropped from the womb in 1909? No. No, he did not.
Will the Democrats all vote nay on a bill? Or will every one of them refuse to cast a vote on it? Those are two different things. (We suspect it’s the former.)
In our Feb. 1 segment, we talked about the Shazam Awards, for making numerous mistakes at once. As a ratio of mistakes to total words, this might be a front-runner for the 2027 all-Shazam. There should be a comma after Sarzo. Bassist should be lower case. And Quiet Riot is one rock band. But here’s the big one: A historical band would be a band that studies history. This person is arguing Quiet Riot is a historic band.
Newspapers commit this shameful hype now and again as well. But the TV people are out of control. The word has lost its meaning. Exclusive? Is this some hermit who hasn’t talked to a reporter in 20 years? No. It’s the attorney general of the state of New York. She talks to reporters daily. Getting her an hour before someone else did does not constitute an exclusive.
We can say with confidence that President Trump did not pick up men’s hockey gold.
When you draw down 700 people, that’s a drawdown. Also, delete “on.” Note that the writers almost immediately fixed the mistakes. Good catch!
And we go to the video archives! Click for Segment 4: Oxymorons
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!