Not Washed or Cooked, # 32

There are some words you really should be able to spell if you're offering Tarot readings. This is one of them:

Link: The Awareness Shop | Lisa'a Tarotscopes

Not Washed or Cooked, # 31

The title of this site is pretty witty, but the typographical error here is eye-watering:

Link: Filmbuffet.com, 'Silimailr'

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 57

StudyMode.com ('Inspiring Better Grades') featured in in a post in January, which discussed the ethics of selling essays to/writing essays for students. I came across a(nother) typographical error on the site  recently, and thought it would be worth investigating it further. Here are a few of the many examples of that error (and a range of other errors arising incidentally from the search) found in essays available from Studymode's database. Do note that these are all marked 'Premium'.

Link: Studymode.com, results for search on 'Fallen angle'

A bit of a logical issue with that last one…

In super-cynical mode, I wondered whether the hideous grammatical, spelling and typographical errors are built in deliberately, intended to reproduce the kinds of mistakes that might occur in the work of this age group… Yet surely not, in essays intended only as 'reference material and thought-starters'.

Not Washed or Cooked, # 30

Yum!

Link: Dreamstime.com | Royalty Free Stock Photo: Buger and fries

Not an uncommon typographical error, in fact. More outstanding examples include:

• some self-promotion from the Ace Bu(r)ger Co, showing a link on the left, and on the right the title of the blog entry:

Link: The Brooklyn Warehouse | The Blog, 'Ace Buger Co. in the News'

• the title of a video posted on the website of WSOCTV, based in Charlotte, NC, which also suffers from inconsistent spelling::

Link: WSOCTV.com | Behind the Scenes | Bad Daddy's Buger Bar Makes the 'Pittsburger'

• and finally a news post by 'yourkiller' on BubbleWS. The error in the headline may be intended as some sort of statement, but given the inconsistent spelling in the body of the post, it's unlikely:

  

Link: BubbleWS | News | Buger Kind bought by McDonalds?!

If you're really bored, try typing the words buger and recipe into an online search engine…

Double-take, # 8

Including an apostrophe in the top line of this advertisement for Peter Christian jeans would have helped the grammar and thus the meaning, but it wouldn't have made the phrase less ambiguous: does the 'special' apply to the offer or the reader(s)? The main issue occurs further down, however, where it seems that someone has done a copy-and-paste job on autopilot:

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 10

Today's mangle is another of those pesky homonyms (but note in passing that the title of this series cries out for a comma):

Link: The Guardian/Observer, Your Problems with Anna Tims, 'instal'

The OED lists instal as a variant of install (v. 2), which means to pay by instalments. It also notes that the term is rarely found and is now obsolete, and lists only a single example, from 1679. It isn't the same word, or from the same etymological root, as the verb install (v. 1), which can mean to set in place or to invest with an office.

The related nouns follow the verbal spelling, thus instalment, which is still in use, for payments, and installment for being invested with an office, although being placed in position is denoted by the noun installation (which is also a viable variant for being invested with an office).

Oddly, Merriam-Webster lists instal as 'a chiefly British variant of install' (i.e., the obsolete word from OED v. 2).

Unless you're writing fiction set in the late seventeenth century and need a verb to describe someone making regular payments, it would probably be wise to set your spell-checker to replace instal with install.

Puny Puns and Weedy Witticisms, # 1

The Guardian's Consumer Champions generally stick to plain headlines, but occasionally attempt wit. They like this pun so much they used it twice in the space of three months in 2010. It seems not to have appeared since, so they may have realized that it's fairly meaningless, and thus not amusing, in both contexts:

Link: Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'cheque in'

Link: Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'cheque out'

Not Washed or Cooked, # 29

The main issue here is the hideous typographical error:

Link: The Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'backlooged'

However, I'm not entirely convinced by the phrasing of the statement: 'your mother should have been refunded'…

Mangling Meaning, # 12

Of course, it's not just the Consumer Champions who have occasional problems with expression; their correspondents sometimes come up with some very strange syntactical constructions:

Link: Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'No joke as "Family Guy" hacked my Santander account'

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 9

Given the state of the world's finances currently and in the last few years, this is not beyond the realms of possibility:

Link: The Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'Lloyds TSB wrecked by credit rating'

Or perhaps the writer had a cold…

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 8

I know I promised you more from the Guardian's Consumer Champions, but the Telegraph suddenly entered the fray with a hideous mangle, too good to delay:

Link: The Telegraph, 'Ukip's founder says the party has gone "completely fruitcake"'

Two for the price of one in a single sentence.

This bit's worth reproducing too:

The academic also said that he received letters complaining about the spelling and grammar used in Mr Farage’s election literature.

“There seemed to be a bit of problem distinguishing its from it’s,” Prof Sked recalled, adding that Mr Farage did admit that writing was not his area of expertise.

Not Washed or Cooked, # 28

As you might have realized from a manglepost last week, I've recently discovered the Guardian's Consumer Champions section, which is filling me with horror at the pitfalls of ever doing anything or buying anything or hiring anything or going anywhere at all, never mind ever dealing with any kind of financial institution. This is all in addition to giving me the odd wince, and occasional hysterics, at the spelling, grammatical and typographical errors.

So a short series from Consumer Champions starts today with Best in Class:

Link: The Guardian, Consumer Champions, 'backlooged'

I can't imagine why the offending word has been placed in quotation marks: it's spelt correctly both times it appears in the body of the piece.* The spirit of the Grauniad lives on!

* Perhaps the Consumer Champions use Blogger, whose spell-checker has failed to flag 'backlooger', although it has now identified 'Blogger' as problematic!