Does Anyone Proofread Anymore?

[TarheelRick]

Got an email from Michael's this morning offering me a $5 reward, don't know why, I haven't shopped there in over a year. Anyway, I decided to look through their model section. For some reason the second time I went through the "Craft & Hobbies" section they showed some different models than the first time. However, that is not what caught my attention, it was this:

In-Store Only

Testors® Gloss Enamel Spray

(152)

$7.99

SAVE 40% ON EVERY REGULAR PRICE PURCHASE WITH CODE CYBER40 Online only

Store Pickup - Unavailable

Ship to Me - Unavailable

 Same Day Delivery-Unavailable

Makes me wonder how you get this paint. It is 'in-store only', yet it is unavailable for store pickup and shipping is unavailable. Most likely the store is out of stock, that is why it is unavailable for pickup. But the way this ad is set-up it is rather confusing. And I can save 40% using a special code for online only.

 

 

Edited July 18, 2024 by TarheelRick

[Ace-Garageguy]

Just about everywhere you go today, common-sense and follow-through are lacking.

Thing is though, these deficiencies have always been there, but the web makes it more visible because more stupid clueless people get to show their stuff to the world.

For instance, I have a collection of old model RR mags going back to the mid-1930s, and it's not at all uncommon for advertising copywriters to omit little things like scale or contact info for the company or distributor, and sometimes even the name of the company selling whateveritis.

One thing that bugs me mightily today though is the plethora of supposed "journalists" who use words just flat wrong and have little understanding of basic English sentence construction, and a recent trend to scramble verb tenses...constructions like "I didn't unloaded it".

Edited July 18, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy
TYPO

[Bugatti Fan]

Agreed Bill

The internet and social media are brilliant places for people to demonstrate their illiteracy.

Edited July 18, 2024 by Bugatti Fan

[TonyK]

I like to go back to my journalism expertise from my high school paper days when looking at our local newspaper. I point out headlines and news articles to my wife that are failures. I still remember how I was taught and this is from the 70's! But, like so many things today, nobody cares to do a good job and be proud of their work.

[redscampi]

Our local Central Texas paper must have interns working overnight. Often the stories they post have glaring omissions for context, location, etc., not to mention the nonsense sentences. I've gotten to where I just snicker a bit and move on.

I realized very early in school that we were not all going to be spelling or grammar champions. I just struggle with how some of those folks ended up working in areas where "words mean things".

[Big John]

No, not even news paper editors edit anymore judging by the egregious errors in both spelling and grammar.

[MeatMan]

I agree with the proofreading issue, however I think that may not be the case here.
I went to their site and selected a similar item. The first item below Is available "In store only", period. Meaning that this item is not shipped. Though I don't get why it can't be available for pickup.
The second item is shipped and is also available in store and available for pickup.
I don't go to Michaels for any paint because at my local store they don't even bother to sort the stuff. They just throw it in wherever it fits.
 

[stitchdup]

store pick up is unavailable as that would need an online purchase which is not available. store pick up and in store are 2 different things.

[bobss396]

I spell-check/ proof read almost anything I type up before sending. After my 2016 heart attack, bypass and a 5-day coma, my spelling and usage has suffered a bit. I mix up "us" and "is", "of", "if" and "or" often. I also will Google simple words that used to be easy to spell.

[Mike 1017]

When I use ATT and the MSN news site, I am amazed at how many cars are miss identified. I always leave the comment "No one proofreads anymore"

Mike

[Brudda]

Wat u meen?

[thatz4u]

Same thing happens in Dayton OH local news channels...?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Afor u cun proof-reed yu gotta be abel to reed.

[Tim W. SoCal]

7 hours ago, Mike 1017 said:

When I use ATT and the MSN news site, I am amazed at how many cars are miss identified.

Yeah, last week on the MSNBC Home Page, I saw an article entitled "Elvis's Pink Cadillac" that showed a picture of a white '56 Lincoln Mk II.

[ChrisBcritter]

I worked for over twelve years as a proofreader for a large printing company in Los Angeles. My greatest moment was when I caught a lawyer's name that was misspelled on a proof of an expensive engraved announcement card.

The lawyer's name was supposed to be spelled Fick.

Edited July 21, 2024 by ChrisBcritter

[James2]

Well to be honest I allways proof read before sending and/or psoting anything.

[Chuckyg1]

Not a proof reading error, but related. The local new was covering a auto accident. At the end of the reporter's synopses, he close the segment by saying, " I'm blah blah blah, live at the site of the scene. Huh? Just one example of many.

[Earl Marischal]

Our local York (UK) paper, The Press, is full of simple errors. Leaving of the last words of

Is one of their regular mistakes. They have, more than once, printed “space filler” text instead of the predictions in the astrologist’s column. Guess nobody was due for a good one that day…

steve (who wrote professionally for a media organisation for 12 years.)

Edited July 23, 2024 by Earl Marischal

[Bugatti Fan]

The post by Chris about the lawyer's name being mis spelt reminded me of the old days when books, journals, newspapers and magazines were proof read properly.

Occasionally there would be a deliberate spelling error made by a journalist that would twist the meaning of a word for pure amusement for the readers that the proof reader would invariably spot but would let go.

[Monty]

I'll touch on a couple of issues here by digging up an old post of mine  from 2022, which was specifically about the incorrect use of apostrophes:

 This has been irritating me for some time, so I'm glad to see someone is finally taking it on.  

Here's what's embarrassing:  Over the years we've had any number of foreign members (mostly European from what I could tell) and they never had any issues using apostrophes correctly, despite the fact that English may not have been their first language, while some American posters mystified me by using them in an almost random way.  I've seen sentences with two plural nouns but only one had the (incorrect) apostrophe.  What rationale were they using to make that decision?

For those of us who learned to use apostrophes the correct way, so much of what we see posted looks as silly as someone typing a'u't'o'm'o'b'i'l'e's. 

To my way of thinking, this comes down to the dumpster fire of American education over the last 3 decades.  I came up through what was considered a "good" school system, but during high school, the German, Japanese and South African exchange students told me privately that they could coast through the year because they'd been taught all this stuff years before and were extremely knowledgeable in every subject, including English.  (I couldn't imagine making the transition from Japanese to English).

My mom was an elementary teacher's aide later in life, but eventually quit in disgust over the continual degradation of standardized material and methods in favor of whatever flavor-of-the-month excrement was deemed to be "the new normal" by those who made education policy.  

Long story short: it starts at the low end and, left uncorrected, results in the scenarios you've posted above.  

 

[stavanzer]

Monty, you are so correct! You do not know the half of it. Most High School Grads now are functionally illiterate. They seldom read any thing but computer or cellphone screens, and many cannot write or spell. Of course, not all are like this but many are. High School now is Day Care for Gang Bangers, with some free meals and education for the few who want to learn something thrown in as an afterthought.