Archive for the ‘Court of English’ Category

The defendant: Amazon.com
The offense: Apostrophe abuse
The evidence:

As you can see, Amazon.com pluralized “Pirate” in the Nintendo Wii title by adding an apostrophe-S combo, which is only used to denote a contraction or a possessive. This mistake is even more egregious since the correct form of the word IS RIGHT THERE ON THE PACKAGE
The correction: Lose the apostrophe (duh)
The sentence: Uhh…give me a free copy of the game? My wife would like it for Christmas. Okay, fine. Just give a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss to every customer who buys this game

The purpose of this feature is to educate readers by spotlighting boneheaded mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation in a public setting.

Judge Bailey presiding. What’s today’s case?

The offense: Homonym error.
The evidence: This notice from Comcast is trying to entice customers receiving standard cable service to switch over to a basic digital package (in advance of the February 2009 digital TV transition) by “waving” for one year the monthly fee for a digital converter box. Unless they mean, “Wave bye-bye to that nasty ol’ fee!” their choice of word is wrong…oh hell, even if that is what they meant, it’s still wrong!
The correction: “Waive,” not “wave.”
The sentence: Donate $1 per flyer issued to customers to a literacy program. Or give me a free year of cable. Either way, I’m cool.

The purpose of this feature is to educate readers by spotlighting boneheaded mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation in a public setting.