Readers: While researching newspaper archives from the 1930s, for a project unrelated to “Horribly Wrong,” our team discovered the same mistakes it finds now. When it comes to bad grammar, when will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?
It is entire stock?
Here’s a modifier that’s as far away from its object as Uruguay is from Germany.
Back to the present:
Hey! They reduced their budget by one letter and passed the savings on to you! How exquiste!
Never should. Always should. Never should. You don't "mow never the yard." So don't say you "should never buy something."
Repeat offense. “.50 cents” equals a half penny. They likely meant 50 cents.
Hank Kleinberg
Puppies are cute. Even they know to get on the waiting list if you’re interested.
This is, of course, redundant. How would you reveal something for a second time?
Robbie Kleinberg
How easy it would be to fix this!
Custom cakes for any occasion
Baked on premises
Better:
Custom cakes
baked here daily
Wrong. Tenants call attention. A group calls attention.
And one that shocked us by actually getting it right!
And we go to the video archives for Segment 2: More redundancies. https://youtu.be/SdkxCZmQrNU
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, 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 properly can credit you. 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!