It’s a losing battle with some writers

Trying to improve the writing on Yahoo! Shine must be a losing battle. How can you help a writer whose grasp of language and common clichés is so tenuous:

What can you teach a writer who is unable to put a modifier like both where it belongs (which I think is before “creating and watching”, but I’m guessing):

How do you explain to a writer that she’s used the wrong word (vs. instead of and):

And how do you encourage a writer with no ear for language or knowledge of basic grammar that punctuation is required in some sentences:

For some writers, trying to improve their writing is a losing battle.

It’s not a huge show, just a huge mistake

One word can make a huge difference in the meaning of a sentence. The exec in question actually said, “It’s not a huge shift“:

If you’re quoting another Web site, there’s no reason for a mistake.  Someone should show the writer of this excerpt from Yahoo! Shine how to use Copy and Paste; then this blunder wouldn’t have happened.

Arguing about a run-in

If you’ve had a run-in with any writers on Yahoo! Shine, then you know that they can be a bit defensive about their writing. They might argue that the word run-in (when properly hyphenated) is the correct word here, although it means “a quarrel or argument:

No one can argue that Amy Carter was ridiculed and is deserving of the correct verb.

The title prime minister doesn’t get capital letters unless it directly precedes the holder’s name. In this case, it would be José (not Juan) Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The writer is wrong again by forming the plural daughters by including an apostrophe (does anyone want to quibble about that third-grade error).

Moving the apostrophe to parents would make it correct:

Halt! Who goes there?

Who goes there? Friend or foe? Or friend of foe?

 

Only the writer of this headline on Yahoo! Shine knows.

Please don’t do your kid’s English homework

I don’t think the writer of this teaser on Yahoo! Shine should be doing her kid’s homework, especially English homework:

One tourist’s favorite countries

Did anyone read the story about top destinations mentioned on the Yahoo! front page? It might have been a more compelling story if  it were about more than one U.S. tourist:

Who’ll sign up to see one person’s photos?

Golly, this is really enticing. Sign up for Yahoo! Personals and you, too, can see photos from one person:

Makes sense, since it is a single person! Ha-ha. I crack myself up sometimes. Yahoo! front page cracks me up, too, when I see errors like that one.

Barbra Streisand: A funny girl spelling

It’s a funny spelling of Barbra Streisand on the home page of Yahoo! Music:

Julianne Nicholson and a brief interview

Perhaps Julianne Nicholson would like a brief interview with the writer of this photo caption on Yahoo! Movies:

She might just find out why her name is misspelled. Frankly, I’d like to know the answer to that one, too.

It’s 2009 and it’s still biracial

It’s 2009. You’d think by now the writers on Yahoo! Shine would know that biracial isn’t hyphenated: