Kicking off the F

Let’s hope the editors on Yahoo! Shine will kick off a proofreading frenzy and rid the site of typos:

How many millions have seen these errors?

How many millions of people read the Yahoo! front page every day? How many of them noticed these errors?

The semicolon should be a comma (it takes the place of an and). If you adhere to Associated Press style (which Yahoo! allegedly does), you form the plural of a singular proper noun ending in S (like Williams) by adding just an apostrophe.

5 healthy habits to avoid

If you’re looking for a big impact to your health, avoid these habits from Yahoo! Shine:

Kristen Stewart is everywhere. So how to explain this?

With the premiere of “New Moon,” Kristen Stewart’s name is everywhere—newspapers, magazines, TV, even the Web. So how come the writer of this teaser on Yahoo! Shine can’t spell her name?

A hubbub, people’s faces and a year’s worth of massages

They’re not going to create a hubbub, but the punctuation problems on Yahoo! TV’s ”Daytime in No Time” blog might affect people’s opinions of the writer:

People is already plural, so that apostrophe belongs before the S:

while year is singular and its possessive is year’s:

No biggie mistakes. Just careless ones.

Elliott-Spelliott

Elliot? Elliott? Eliot? It’s a harder name to spell than you think. After all, who remembers if there’s one L or two? One T or two? And I never know where to look to find out how to spell Sam Elliott and Elliott Gould. I just know not to trust Yahoo! Movies:

and Yahoo! TV:

Kristen Stewart and Courteney Cox slip-up

Actresses Kristen Stewart and Courteney Cox nearly made an appearance on Yahoo! TV’s ”Daytime in No Time”:

Their names appear everywhere these days. So how does a writer specializing in TV programming and celebs make a slip-up like this?

The worst trend in writing

Reporting on celebrity fashion trends requires absolutely no knowledge of celebrities or designers. Or at least if you write for Yahoo! Shine, knowing how to spell the names of celebrities and designers is purely optional. In fact, knowing how to spell anything is purely optional. Case in point: Shine’s feature “The Thread.”

The writer doesn’t bother spelling Angie Harmon’s name correctly:

A misplaced apostrophe is a relatively minor offense when it happens once:

But when it happens again, it’s bound to rile some readers:

Also? Using that to refer to real human beings isn’t considered wrong, just “impolite.” Omitting any kind of punctuation around a movie title (like “Twilight”) isn’t impolite; it’s just wrong.

Again ignoring the journalistic convention of correct spelling, the writer hacks up Leighton Meester. (Or maybe I should say, the hack hacks it up):

The pronoun them has no visible antecedent and using who’s instead of whose is the kind of mistake you might expect from a fourth grader.

If you’ve read this far, you shouldn’t be surprised by a missing word and a misspelling of Claire’s:

Let’s hope this is just a typo and that Amanda Peet wasn’t actually wearing Mischa Barton:

I’m not the only one who cares about good writing, you know. I think the Olsen twins might care about how their name is spelled:

Shoes like platforms are usually sold in pairs:

Betsey Johnson is one designer whose name doesn’t require spelling accuracy. Same goes for celeb Taylor Momsen:

As for the funky characters that appear to be two hyphens? God knows what that is supposed to be, though a period or semicolon would be correct.

No surprise here. Another punctuation problem: Lindsay Lohan needs an apostrophe and an S:

Is this a new trend in writing on Yahoo!? Or just an especially egregious example of a longstanding acceptance of horrible writing?

A shot in the dark misses

Someone working on the Yahoo! front page took a shot at spelling dark horse, but missed the mark:

Tabatha Coffey isn’t his cup of tea

Hairstylist Tabatha Coffey isn’t a favorite of the blogger over at Yahoo! TV“s “Primetime in No Time.” Apparently he prefers someone named Tabitha: