From the Grammar Police
No harm, no foul?
For years, sports teams have gotten away with saying “violated team rules” without elaborating. And lazy reporters have reported that worthless phrase without ever asking, “What rules?” And “What did he do?” And if the team won’t say, the story must report that it didn’t. This headline didn’t do that. But the story later did. Kudos!
Oh, no. Didn’t we settle this in grade school? Someone in the newsroom must have spotted this too, because minutes later, it was fixed.
Some grammar outfits say alright is an acceptable variation of all right. Most don’t. We defer to the bible of the Horribly Wrong team, the Associated Press stylebook, which hits the “no” buzzer on alright.
Oh, those modifiers misplaced! The vice president criticized Democratic women in 2021, not in his new book. Let’s fix it:
“…admitted in his new book that it was a mistake for him to….”
The second paragraph made the timing clear. That doesn’t excuse the first paragraph.
Technically, this should say “Tony’s and Luigi’s.” But we acknowledge the argument that context makes it clear the place belongs to both Tony and Luigi. Readers?
We’ve talked about this placement problem. It suggests gas prices could physically do something, which they can’t. Better would be, “Could take months for gas prices to return to pre-war levels.” Or are we picking nits? Readers?
Robbie Kleinberg
Robbie Kleinberg
These butcherings of “customer” constitute a pretty funny goof. But these were writers for whom English is a second language. How’s your second language? Not so easy, eh? Heck; how’s your first language?
And we go to the video archives! Click for Segment 11: Bad TV, Weather Edition.
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!