Double-take, # 234

Via Dr Faustus:

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

the UK’s UK’s driverless cars

Double-take, # 232

This mangled text was found on Oxford University’s website by Arina, who comments: ‘It’s hilarious that this comes from the description of a module on editing.’

Link: University of Oxford Language Centre, ‘English for Academic Studies’

Repetition of copy: ‘Editing your Thesis with Corpora is a short (12-hour) course designed for doctoral students who are at the transfer stage […] This 12-hour intensive course is designed for doctoral students who have passed the transfer stage […].’

Double-take, # 224

A hideous mangle, a puzzling preposition, and some repetitive and confusing gerunds, spotted by Dr Faustus:

Link: College of Media and Publishing, Sports Journalism

jurnalism; exciting reading looking; reading [again]; about for by?

You Cannot Be Serious, # 63

Dr Faustus thinks this may be less money than it looks:

Link: BBC News, NI’s top lawyer to join “gay cake” case’

£500 pounds

You Cannot Be Serious, # 62

Des Pond of Slough has submitted this recent breadcrumb from The Telegraph’s homepage, asking: ‘If you lose a loss, isn’t that a gain?’

lost 22pc loss

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 228

Today’s seasonal offering brings a range of mangles wrapped a short paragraph and finished with an astoundingly apt typographical slip:

Link: Community Restaurants’ Blog, ‘So how well did Restaurants do this Easter?’

the the; thats; 16830000; Fifty one; holiday themed buffet; in that order respectively; traditional Eater meal

Not Washed or Cooked, # 299

Today’s mangle was spotted in Elephant & Castle Station by Dr Faustus, in an advertisement for Sir John Cass's Foundation and Red Coat School. This is a puzzling error. Surely, with a repeating pattern like this, the obvious thing to do is check the first set thoroughly and then copy and paste it?

Wednesdy

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

Double-take, # 208

Via Dr Faustus, and not a very promising start:

Source: Catrine Carpenter, Teach Yourself: Beginner’s French (London: Hodder Headline, 2003), p. vii

In addition to the overlooked duplication, the sentence includes a unhappy choice of lexis: an if where, as Cambridge Dictionaries Online confirms, the preferred conjunction in a situation offering alternatives linked with or is whether.

course course; if … or

Double-take, # 188

So good you can do it twice, or intended to be a different course in Ancient History? (Don’t miss the unlikely-sounding title at the bottom of the list…)

Source: Northamptonshire County Council, ‘My County Council: Adult Learning Courses’, Autumn 2015—Spring 2016

duplicated course name (Ancient History – Egypt and Mesopotamia)

Double-take, # 161

Today’s mangle predates this blog, and was blogged elsewhere, but it follows on nicely from yesterday’s and it seems appropriate to bring it into the Mangling English fold — and it is a favourite of mine:

The Rugby Review (5 November 2009)

black female actress

Double-take, # 146

There seems to be much uncertainty in this report’s opening paragraph:

Link: The Independent, ‘Man allegedly stabs two people at Detroit bus stop after asking if they were Muslims’

The phrase ‘according to a report’ surely negates the need for any expression of allegation, never mind two of them (plus another in the unwieldy headline).

2x allegedly + 1 in headline

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 171

Des Pond of Slough thought for a moment that he was seeing double…

Link: BBC News, ‘Coventry Canal Basin bridge removal plans spark safety fears’

Plans to replace plans to replace a ring road footbridge

Double-take, # 126

Duplication and a slipping capital letter in this report about the dangers of drinking wine:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Drinking a glass of wine is the same as downing three shots of vodka’

duplicated paragraph & slipping ‘L’

Double-take, # 121

Dr Faustus has sent in this staff circular from the Co-op:

hard work work

Not Washed or Cooked, # 164

A bit of a mess from the Indie’s archives:

Link: The Independent, ‘Forget the gadgets, housework today is as tough as it was 60 years ago’

Unied States + duplicate opening paragraph

Double-take, # 79

More duplication (not to mention decidedly inelegant syntax) found by Dr Faustus:

Link: BBC News, ‘Gove rebuts claims of American author ban’

To Kill a Mockingbird Bird

Double-take, # 78

Dr Faustus has found a paragraph with a much-mangled main clause:

Link: WalesOnline, ‘Under Milk Wood: 7 things to look for as film hits BBC Four’

the first first chance viewers from across the UK the first time it will have been broadcast

Double-take, # 77

Pop Spencer came upon this:

Link: Groupon, ‘Personalised Acrylic Photo Print in Choice of Sizes […]’

You can imagine the discussion.

‘Now, when you create the webpage, you need to put in eight points about the product — it’s got to be eight, OK?’
‘But there aren’t eight things on this list.’
‘Well, rejig one of them a bit and stick it in again. No-one’ll notice.’

I’m not convinced by ‘shiny appearance’ either: isn’t ‘shiny’ self-evidently linked to ‘appearance’?

duplication (Resistant to light and water/light and water resistant) & redundancy (Shiny appearance

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 127

The opening sentence of this report showcases a past participle mangle and a duplication:

Link: Rugby Observer, 8 May 2014, p. 13

have been affect