"Henrich" Chevrolet is a Bully

In, at, near, by, with, of - such teenie words that do so much work, or damage, depending on who is wielding them.  I really believe that people are becoming more casual about their choices.  It feels as if some writers just toss one in randomly, knowing something is needed, but not knowing or caring what it is.  Take the misuse of the word "by":

Oh, Henrich, you bully!  How dare you throw down that motorcycle driver!

If you glanced lightly at this caption, appearing in the September 25, 2012 edition of Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (NY), you may not have noticed all the other errors.  Here's what I saw:

• "Henrich" Chevrolet is actually Heinrich Chevrolet, but if you're not local, you wouldn't know that.
• Niagara County Sheriff's Office (one out of two for missing the apostrophe.)
• Why the sudden capital M on "Motorcycle"?
• "Pick up truck" is either "pickup" or "pick-up".
• How many times do you have to say that the truck turned in front of the motorcycle?  Wasn't "reportedly cut off by a pick up [sic] truck" enough?

Have you found any other errors in this one little caption?  Please, let me know what you think--of the caption, of the idea that writers are becoming overly casual about grammar, of the fact that a newspaper can let this sort of caption appear on the front page.

FLY'N

People seem to have become pretty casual about apostrophes.  Possessives, plurals, contractions are all great places to toss around apostrophes, whether or not they're necessary.  It really gets weird when apostrophes are tossed around (or not) for missing letters in vernacular writing.  See, for example, the following sports headline from the August 27, 2012 Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (NY):

Consider:

• Flying
• Flyin'
• Fly'n
• Flyin

Flying is correct, but doesn't have the casual flair.  Flyin' is the way to be casual--drop the "g" and replace with an apostrophe.  Fly'n suggests some letter or letters missing between the "y" and the "n."  "Fly'n" might indicate a vernacular "and," though it's not the way I would do it, anyway.

Whoever put in the headline didn't bother to read the first paragraph, which got it closer (but not completely correct):

Now all it's missing is the final apostrophe--still wrong, but not as glaring as a giant, bold, capital-letter headline.

Bradangelo

Western New Yorkers, myself included, love to bowl, which is how a bowling alley renovation becomes front page sports news in the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal.  Too bad nobody read over the story before it went to print.  Sure, journalists are trained to pack a lot of information in right away, but, really!  After you get past the dangly feel of the headline, read the opening paragraph.  Tighten it up, people!  And learn the difference between "sight" and "site" (and "cite," while you're at it.)

One tip I enthusiastically give my students is to remove the word "thing" from their writing.  There is always  a way to be more specific.  Please, Mister Reporter, when you revise, you can take the time to think just a little bit harder and get rid of any form of "thing," "stuff," "or whatever."

Let me know what you think of this thing...er...article:

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, August 17, 2012.
First part of the article only, which was the most horrendous.  If you're that interested in the bowling alley to want to read the second part, you can message me or look it up yourself.

What You Say vs. What You Mean

I understand that Facebook is informal and I don't judge too harshly, but, still...

A family in a nearby town recently had their house blown up by a leaky propane tank.  They had a lot of kids, one teenager died, other members of the family have been in intensive care--it is horrible.  Someone on Facebook forwarded a post calling for donations that said, "This tragedy could not have struck a better family."

Of course we know what she meant, but what she said was, "Oh, goodie!  This awful family deserved a tragedy of this magnitude.  Karma!"  The poster has no idea what she said, and maybe most people reading it have no idea, but that makes me sad.

When I was teaching basic college writing at a private university, a student had written an analysis of a news program that covered The Linda Yalem Run, a memorial run in honor of a woman raped and killed on a bike path.  Several women had been raped, but only Linda Yalem had also been killed.  My student wrote, "Sadly, Linda was the only one to have been killed."  So... the others were missing out?  It's too bad all of them weren't killed?

Lesson: be aware of what you are actually saying.  Words have meanings.  Having to overlook what you say because it's not what you mean is confusing and tiresome.

Do you have an example of this kind of mush?  Please comment with it here and we can all shake our heads sadly.

One of the Worst Articles EVER!

"Get me a story about the Burn Out King, stat!  I don't care if you have to write it on your phone--just do it!"

"Okay, boss.  Here it is."

"That was fast..."

It sure was!  How many grammar errors can YOU find?  Where does your brain come to a screeching halt because of the awkward writing?  HINT: first grammar error is in the teaser and the first screech to a halt came, for me, in the second paragraph.  Please feel free to comment with your own findings.

For your amusement and to boost your feelings of superiority:

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, July 23, 2012.

How Many?

Article title: "Lone Gunmen Baffle Police."  Article contents: all about ONE shooting incident with ONE gunMAN.  If your carpets don't match the drapes, hardly anybody will notice.  If your article doesn't match your title, well, somebody should notice!

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, July 23, 2012.

Left and Right

Okay, this is not technically a grammar error, but the formatting error is amusing to me.  Perhaps it's an indicator of how understaffed our local newspaper has become?

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, July 22, 2012.

It's Crazy Talk

Am I a Grammar Nazi?  Though my students might say so, and perhaps The Lockport Union-Sun & Journal might say so, I'm not.  I don't stop people in regular conversation to point out grammar errors, nor do I always speak or write in perfect English, but I do notice when I find errors in print.  Student papers?  To be expected.  Professional newspapers?  All hail the Grammar Nazi!

Please read the headline from this June 14, 2012 article and tell me what's wrong.  I'll wait.

If you didn't barf a little in your mouth, you didn't notice.  Reread, and this time read out the contraction... there's the barf.

Now read the large text meant to highlight the article's great wisdom.  NOTE: this error is tougher to spot.

Did you notice comma splice making it a run-on sentence?  Though, after the super basic "it's" vs. "its" error in the title, I wouldn't expect them to find a comma splice.

What grammar error annoys you the most?  Have you actually found it in print?  I'll keep posting them!  Finding bad grammar in professional publications is becoming more a given than a hunt.  I'm scared.  Very, very scared.  It's...its...it's...its... er... It is not funny!

Seriously, They Have an Editor?

I live in a small city surrounded by farms and trailer parks.  This is the city that when you mention it by name in the "real" city nearby, people shudder and wonder how you could live so intolerably far away.  This city has everything you'd expect in a big city: loud music thumping from pimped out cars, public urination, teenagers lurking on the sidewalks, "Mister Natural Ice" dumping his empties on lawns, gun violence.  We also have stores specializing in camouflage and chicken feed, tractors slowing down traffic, the smell of manure and not a Starbucks in sight.  This city even has a real newspaper: The Lockport Union-Sun & Journal.

I include for your inspection a picture and caption from the front page of the Monday, June 4, 2012 edition.  I read it and my eye started twitching.  What do you think?  (Clicking on the picture will make it large enough to read easily.)

What irritated me the most:

• Ending a sentence with a proposition. In casual communications, whatever, but in a newspaper?
• The dryer actually made its way around the house?  The dryer?  *sigh*
• "...surrounding stuff..."  Stuff?!?  Why not "things" or "junk" or "like, whatever"?  Can't think of a word?  Don't worry, "stuff" works for all kinds of things!

What part of this caption irritates you the most?  If you have your own irritating newspaper article, please feel free to send it to me and I'll post it here.