You Cannot Be Serious, # 75

From Dr Faustus:

Source: Just Like Us

homophic

Multimangle, # 55

Another unsolicited email, with a rather naive subject line, from the inbox of Dr Faustus:

write you; no for not; 30mins; if you have interest in know what the job entails [omitted articles; comma splices]

You Cannot Be Serious, # 74

This fairly short piece of text is marked by confusion, due to a failure to proofread before posting — or since: the mangle, submitted by Dr Faustus a month ago was still in place as of this morning — and an absence of any of the hyphens required by the rules of grammar and for the sake of clarity, as well as inconsistency in the positioning of the registered trademark symbol:

Link: Vitae, ‘Vitae Three Minute Thesis competition’

by the until the end of June; Three Minute Thesis competition; Vitae hosted

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 115

Dr Faustus is unimpressed by the persistent misuse of apostrophes in this press release:

Link: ResponseSource Press Release Wire

CV’s (x3)

Double-take, # 239

Dr Faustus spotted this in his local EE shop:

Apologies’; shut from 5:30 tonight we apologise […]; To Our Valued Customers

Not Washed or Cooked, # 311

This mangle comes, via Dr Faustus, from an examination on the course in Teaching English as a Foreign Language offered by the Centre for Languages & International Education at University College London:

metholodology

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 110

This mangle, spotted by Dr Faustus, has now been corrected:

Link: BBC News, ‘Alton Towers Smiler Ride Reopens Nine Months After Horror Crash’

insure for ensure

Not Washed or Cooked, # 310

Via Dr Faustus:

Link: The Independent, ‘Procrastination Makes You More Creative, Research Says’

procratisnation

Double-take, # 237

Dr Faustus says: ‘Spotted in a fire vehicle displayed at my local primary school.’

when when

Double-take, # 234

Via Dr Faustus:

Link: Twitter, @SkyNews (16 May, 2016)

the UK’s UK’s driverless cars

You Cannot Be Serious, # 71

Dr Faustus spots some problematic programming in an automated email from KCL’s IT Services. The syntax is not most logically ordered either:

We informed you that we believe your issued to be resolved on the [insert date]

Double-take, # 233

Spotted, Dr Faustus says, rather vaguely, ‘in my local pharmacy’:

hygene

Singular or Plural? # 19

Spotted by Dr Faustus at Locksbridge Park, a new housing development in Andover:

The early bird gets the house they want

You Cannot Be Serious, # 69

The caption-writer either doesn’t understand the term ‘clockwise’ or needs to learn to check details before posting… This was spotted by Dr Faustus, who explains: ‘If the photos were correctly read clockwise from top left, the bottom two pictures should be swapped over. Result: unintentionally hilarious image of the Mad Hatter as a new X-Man’ — so crossed streams after all?

Link: The Guardian, ‘Scorchers: The Hottest Films of Summer 2016’

misordered caption – X-Men/Alice crossover]

Not Washed or Cooked, # 308

Smoothly following on from yesterday’s contribution, in which an academic institution used unedited copy to promote a course on editing, today’s mangle was found, by Dr Faustus, on the blog of a journalism website:

Link: Brighton Journalist Works, ‘YOU Magazine to Red, Alumna Emma Laurence’s Journey to Freelance Writing’

Jounalism

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 105

The writer knows what the right word is, as it appears in the final paragraph here, but the word used in second paragraph makes little sense, as Dr Faustus observes. There’s a hyphen missing too:

Link: BBC News, ‘Britons with “wrong passport” stopped from travelling to US’

biometric trip [for chip]; old style passport

Double-take, # 229

Some time ago, Dr Faustus submitted this shot of a mangle from the printed Radio Times (edition unknown). A search on its website suggests that this mangle occurs quite often in the publication:

The ‘i before e’ issue was addressed by Mangling English in December 2012.

fiesty

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 103

Dr Faustus is unimpressed by what he calls an ‘insensitive mangle’ (though the insensitivity arguably begins with the headline, and ‘insensitive’ seems too generous a term):

Link: BBC News, ‘Memorial Service for Ben Nevis Death Climber Tim Newton’

exhibitions for expeditions

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 114

Dr Faustus found this on a piece of clothing in H&M and was, he says, quite tempted to buy it, but for the apostrophe catastrophe which he could not countenance wearing. The inexplicable dash and the odd motto beneath the main text also offer good reasons to leave it on the rack:

world’s; New— York City; the island of manhattan | city of superlatives

Multimangle, # 51

Another mangle variety-pack from Dr Faustus:

Link: England’s North East, ‘Roots, Dialect and Place-names’

80 %; 30 %; comaprison; continuosly