Not Washed or Cooked, # 295

An oddity:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Angry homeowner gets revenge on commuter who parked in her driveway’

driveaway for driveway

Problem punctuation, # 14

Dr Faustus can’t remember where he found this gem of misplaced punctuation:

Thank you, Marnel! Lodge

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 223

This display quotation is both mangled and banal:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Parents who stole charity laptops from cancer ward before blaming their terminally-ill son face jail’

us for use

Not Washed or Cooked, # 294

Accompanied by a superb example of superfluous illustration, this mangle has now been corrected:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Gang pockets thousands of pounds after doctoring private school bills, police warn’

Hamsptead

Not Washed or Cooked, # 293

Just Nick is less than impressed with Warwick University’s proofreading skills (while the award’s full title sounds as if Derek Zoolander — of The Derek Zoolander School for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Want to Do Other Stuff Good Too — invented it):

Link: The University of Warwick, Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE) — WATE PGR Information

Eligilibitly; the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence for Postgraduates Who Teach

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 97

Another pesky homophone (and a confused title):

Link: The Guardian, ‘In challenging homophobia, gay men have become our own oppressors’

routes for roots

Multimangle, # 42

This Google snapshot of its webpages suggests that J. D. Wetherspoon is having trouble harmonizing its corporate identity, amongst other things:

Link: Google search on ‘Wetherspoon’

Wetherspoon, founded in 1979 is a national chain across the whole of the UK & Ireland, with our award winning pubs & hotels, we are […]; Wetherspoon has […]; Wetherspoon have […]; Wetherspoon’ Pubs

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 222

Ryan McCarthy spotted this on the menu at The Fox on The Hill, a Wetherspoon pub in Denmark Hill, London:

Cartmel for Caramel OR Cartmel sticky toffee pudding for Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding

Multimangle, # 41

From the backlog of Dr Faustus, who described it as ‘a dubious charity pitch letter’:

one of our fundraiser; work for the orphans, people living under the poverty; increasing the number of pupil; a grand success; also works along with helping people with Alzheimer’s and supporting those that care for Alzheimer’s disease; teaming up with us by cooperating to reach our goals

Double-take, # 215

An initial capital might help, replacing ‘your’ with ‘a’ would be better; doing both and inserting a relevant noun (‘degree’, perhaps, or ‘course’) would be best of all…

your master’s dissertation

Not Washed or Cooked, # 292

The last day of misspellings of ‘appropriate’ brings several other mangles, including an idiosyncratic use of exclamation marks:

Link: GigSalad, ‘Amber Belly Dance’

apropreat; Resuraunt; Privet; Capavating; Parties of types! Night Clubs! Restaurants! Cultural Events! Country Club Events! Weddings!

Not Washed or Cooked, # 291

Today’s mangling of ‘appropriate’ (juxtaposed with a scarcity of hyphens) is taken from a blog run by the National Fire Protection Association, which is based in the USA, but describes itself as ‘a global, nonprofit organization’, thus neatly contradicting its name:

Link: NFPA Safety Source blog, 21 November 2014, ‘Ideas on how your kids can help in the kitchen […]’

aprropriate; [no matter their age]

Multimangle, # 40

Today’s mangle of ‘appropriate’, which may be an unchecked error rather than a typographical slip, comes from a German university and brings for company some dubious syntax and grammar:

Link: CENIDE (Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen), ‘PhD project’ breadcrumb

apropirate; candidates for PhD theses which have a master’s degree; syntax

Not Washed or Cooked, # 290

The font is large, the mangle also, in the main question tackled by this advice column:

Link: Winona Daily News, ‘Are questions of faith approrpriate or offensive?’

approrpriate

Not Washed or Cooked, # 289

A thematic run this week, starting with a reminder that, should you choose a condescending stance, it is vital to proofread before posting:

Link: Lexington Montessori School, ‘Outdoor Clothing - Tis [sic] the Season!’

Tis the Season!; approrpiate weater; your child(ren) need; CLOTHINGS

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 96

A moment’s aberration, a pesky homophone or a rather ineffectual eggcorn? Now corrected, as is the original URL based on it:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘“I could walk around starkers if I wanted to […]”’

peace of mind

Double-take, # 214

Dr Faustus spotted this on the Teach First online graduate scheme application form:

GSCE for GCSE

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 221

The last of the competency-test mangles submitted by Dr Faustus contains more spelling errors, more random capitalization and an ill-checked interrogative formulation:

Source: Numerical Reasoning Test

passanger, carrage, which how much more; capitalization

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 220

More competency test mangles from Dr Faustus. Today’s example seems to be mainly about random capitalization, although ‘£1000-worth’ might better express the purchases, or reordering resulting in ‘at £1000’:

Source: Numerical Reasoning Test

Rice; august; Maize; £1000 of Rice/Maize

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 95

I’ve saved this recent submission from Mo Juste for the anniversary of the last time he sent in an example of what may be the mangle that most annoys him:

Link: Udiscover, ‘The Godfathers of British Blues’

Mo Juste comments: ‘I can see that you’d write “You shouldn’t underestimate what Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner…”, but surely “It’s impossible to overestimate what Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner…” is what the writer meant.’

underestimate for overestimate

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 219

From the competency test featured yesterday, Dr Faustus now sends problems with prepositions:

Source: CEB — SHL Talent Measurement

talk on her phone 7,000 minutes; suited for

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 218

Dr Faustus seems to have been doing some online competency tests, and finding various mangles. Today’s include an accidental substitute, some American spelling that seems to have crept onto the global company’s British website, a stray bit of code, and some rather dubious logic:

Source: CEB — SHL Talent Measurement

traveled; causalities for casualties; [+ logic + <]

Double-take, # 213

Rookie news reporters might usefully be given a list of potential pitfalls (as well as lessons in how to write effective and pithy headlines). This mangle should be on it:

Link: Southern Daily Echo, ‘Ringwood man taken to court for putting his feet on a train seat between Ellesmere Port and Hooton in Liverpool’

bye-law [+ headline]

Right word, wrong form, # 5

The wrong adjective on this root is used here to describe participants in a recent promotional email, which thus ends up accidentally insulting the other booksellers who use the Abebooks portal:

select for selected

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 217

Another mangled Facebook meme:

Link: Facebook, Unusual Facts

quite for quiet

Double-take, # 212

The first sentence in this description of the Cambridge Pre-U qualification reads rather oddly:

Link: Cambridge International Examinations, ‘Cambridge Pre-U’

that prepares learners with the skills and knowledge they need

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 216

Dr Faustus, still unimpressed by Waterstones abandoning its apostrophe, doesn’t think much of its staff’s proofreading abilities either:

for those can attend

Not Washed or Cooked, # 288

Dr Faustus recently contributed a mangle from the application form for the graduate trainee scheme of The Financial Times. He seems to have persevered with the application, and the FT form with its mangles:

our for your; acamdeic; recieved; employmnet

Multimangle, # 39

Today’s contributor, Mo Juste, comments: ‘A friend posted this on Facebook recommending anyone going into Northampton General Hospital to go for the Halal menu (and quite rightly so).’

fedding for feeding; commas for heftier punctuation; only […] only; general syntax