be kind... proofread.
Okay, so my title is not *quite* as catchy as "be kind rewind"...but it gets the point across.
Moving on...
I love reading the "______ is good" pages on Vox. The posts that are spotlighted are really the best and most interesting posts on Vox, and it's great to see what everyone's talking about. However, I was a little disappointed today for the following reasons:
On "[culture is good]" :
"Remembering George Carlin
In memory of George Carin, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 71..."
"In memory of George Carin...." The confusing part is the fact that .000001 seconds ago, the subject was George Carlin and now we've moved on ....to someone with an eerily similar (but not quite identical) name?
A quick once/twice/thrice-over to check for mistakes like this wouldn't hurt.
On "[music is good]":
"On the Right Track
Whenever Erwinizm starts to feel down, he turns to these songs for a little pick-me-up. If you're looking for a some musical inspiration you've come to the right spot!"
Or he/she was trying to say "awesome musical inspiration" and those two missing letters were even sneakier and ran away, leaving behind only confusion and that poor little "a" that they meant to take with them.
On "news & politics":
"The Way the World Sees America
JudgeBob
says that liberals say the world "hates America for its imperialism and
consumption of resources," but argues that this is not, in fact, the
truth. Learn why the thinks the international community love what American represents."
"Learn why the thinks..." No no no. Again, proofreading makes all the difference, Vox.
On "[technology is good]":
Review | Netflix Home Video Box
"Oregonkc bought and set up the Netflix home video box. Find out what he think about the price, content, quality and setup..."
"Find out what he think..." Also a "no no no" situation. We fixed the "the" issue (it's actually a "he" now, thank you for getting it right that time), but that "s" missing from the end of "think" is actually necessary, believe it or not. If you could put the "s" in the above example ("learn why the thinks"), you can put it here too.
This kind of thing happens to everyone. We forget to look over what we've written and send it to "print" or "save" under the impression that it's "done". And that's okay sometimes. If you're writing a Post-it to yourself, feel free to completely ignore all rules of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I'm not going to complain about something like that. However, this is a bit too similar to a few months ago, when I walked into a JCPenney dressing room and saw an ad for the JCPenney Salon:
<<The close-up: "Mean's you'll get a look...". No, JCPenney! Just no! That stray apostrophe in "mean's" isn't supposed to be there. It's just taking up space.
It's about professionalism, and maintaining some kind of standard to separate yourself from the run-down stores on the side of the road with letters falling off of the sign (There used to be a hotel near where I live - a Ramada. Over time the letters fell off of the sign and it became the Ram-da, the Ram-a, the Ram, and finally just the Ra. For the longest time, every time I passed that hotel, I wanted to sing "Who put the bomp in the bomp bah bomp bah bomp? Who put the Ram in the Rama lama ding dong?"). In Vox's case, it's maintaining the standard to separate yourself from the average MyFace profile (yes, I did mean to say MyFace - a term a friend and I came up with to refer to social networking sites as a whole rather than separately. Also: Spacebook.) or blogger without a care.
If the words you're writing are going to be displayed on a sign in stores across the country, or on the front page of a website that has a pretty high volume of visitors every day, for the love of all that is holy in grammar and punctuation handbooks / style guides, PROOFREAD.
Really Vox, if you need someone to proofread... don't be shy. Ask someone. Hey, you can ask me. I like proofreading. I'm odd like that. I consider proofreading "fun". A hobby. It doesn't have to be me, though. Anyone. As long as you have someone preventing things like this from happening in the future. That would be great. Thanks.
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Comments
In the world of typed blogs, one's grammatical acumen (or lack thereof) dictates the type of first impression one makes. Sure, everyone gets lazy now and then, or uses "alternative" spelling for dramatic effect, but on a headline article I'd have hoped that Vox would have practiced more discretion.
I too love to proofread. I find them all the time in the books I read.. and I wonder where the editor was on this error and it puts a big smile on my face!
It is absolutely horrific for me when I go back to read something I have written and find the errors. But sometimes it makes me laugh and blame my fingers for not moving as fast as I think. :)