Either a missing word or an extra word

It’s a minor omission on the Yahoo! front page — except to those who love the symmetry of a correlative conjunction:

The correlative conjunction is either…or, two words that when used together join two elements that should be parallel; that is, they should be the same part of speech. And each part should be able to complete the sentence they’re part of. So, “a LinkedIn” should be paired with “a Last.fm.” That’s it. I’m done being all grammatical on you.

Let’s learn from this

Here are some simple lessons we can all learn (or be reminded of) from the gaffes on Yahoo! TV‘s “Daytime in No Time.”

A misspelling and misplaced commas: A spell-check would have identified the misspelled liaison. It appears on many lists of the Top 100 Misspelled Words. In the U.S. a comma goes before the closing quotation mark:

A misplaced apostrophe: If a plural noun doesn’t end in S (like men, women, children), form the possessive by adding an apostrophe and an S (in that order):

A missing apostrophe: Let’s take a look at the contraction let’s. It’s short for let us. It’s the only common contraction that consists of a verb and a pronoun with a missing letter. But it needs an apostrophe:

Misplaced correlative conjunction: The pair either… or is a correlative conjunction that joins like words, phrases, or clauses. The collection of words on each side of or should be the same part of speech: If there’s a verb before the or, there should be a verb after it. If there’s a clause before it, there should be a clause after it:

This could be corrected by either this rewording:

they either had too much free time or just love to dance

or this rewording:

either they have too much free time or they just love to dance

Why did Huckabee hand records to his predecessor?

It makes no sense. After reading on Yahoo! News‘ “The Ticket” that Mike Huckabee turned over records from his stint as governor to the person who was governor before him, I have to ask:  How dumb is that?

That’s about as stupid as not knowing the difference between a predecessor and a successor. Now that’s really dumb.

Oh, also, the reporter for “The Ticket” doesn’t seem to know how to use the correlative conjunction either…or. The correlative conjunction must join like parts of speech. So, it should be:

…either were given to his predecessor successor Gov. Mike Beebe or were placed in storage…

Or even:

…were either given to his predecessor successor Gov. Mike Beebe or placed in storage…

You’re not writing on someone’s Facebook wall

For some people, the writing standards for comments on Facebook are a bit lax. But if you’re a professional writer, your readers expect grammatically correct prose. So, maybe the writer for Yahoo! Movies was a bit confused and thought he or she was writing on a friend’s Facebook wall:

When using the correlative conjunction either…or, a real writer knows that it must join like things, like two nouns, two verbs, or two clauses — not a clause and a noun. I’m not sure about the word internet, because Yahoo! doesn’t seem to have a standard for spelling it; you’ll see it as both internet and Internet throughout Yahoo!. There’s also a missing word (it should be something like “life story has been made”) and when you’re talking directly to Steve Jobs, put a comma before his name.

Take that, “professional” writer!

A formula for a writing disaster

Misspellings, typos, grammatical gaffes — they’re a formula for disaster. And they’re what you’ll find in this article on Yahoo! Shine.

Abbott Laboratories, the maker of Similac, is voluntarily recalling up to 5 million containers of formula. At least that’s what I think the writer meant:

(In the U.S., companies are singular, even if the name of the company contains a plural.) The writer probably also meant to spell Guam and stomachaches correctly. But I just guessin’.

I’m also guessin’ that she was going to complete this sentence, but got distracted by a shiny object:

Focusing her attention back on her writing, she probably meant to call the man by his real name —  Vincent Iannelli. And she probably didn’t mean to omit the hyphen from Similac-branded:

So what do you do if your writing is less than stellar? If you can’t spot a typo? If you don’t know the difference between you’re (which is a contraction for you are) and your (which is a possessive pronoun)? If you don’t know how to use the correlative conjunction either…or to join like items?

I don’t know what you would do, but I’d ask for the help of an editor. Otherwise, this would just be a formula for a writing disaster.

Tooo much of a bad thing

Is a grammatically challenged, typo-filled article to be trusted? I have to wonder what facts the writer for Yahoo! News also mangled when I read stuff like this:

and this:

I’m guessing which should be while. I’m also guessing that one word here and a solitary parenthesis are unnecessary:

Maybe the Space bar jammed temporarily:

There’s just too much in Toobin’s name:

and a little unbalance in the correlative conjunction either…or:

Not much to be said about this, except that it does not reflect well on Yahoo! as an original news source.

Dumbstruck by lightening

This ridiculous homophonic error on Yahoo! Shine hit me like a bolt of lightning:

Who the heck makes a mistake like that? The same writer who doesn’t know how to use either the correlative conjunction either…or or the hyphen:

You should know this about Pilates

How did I know that Ellen Barrett’s name was mangled in this photo caption on Yahoo! Shine?

Pretty simple: I looked at the photo!

And how did I know that Pilates is a proper noun? I’m smart. And I Googled it! 

Anyone with an eighth grade education could spot the misplaced correlative conjunction either…or, and anyone who can read can see the “typo” in 20-minutes:

Maybe it takes a more careful eye to see the missing hyphen in three-trainer, three-part, and high-intensity and to work out that workout is wrong:

I guess if you don’t know that Pilates is named for its founder, Joseph Pilates, you’d think it was a common noun and always spell it with a lowercase P:

But I’m thinking if you didn’t know that basic fact, maybe you shouldn’t be writing about yoga.

How many did you count?

I circled the bad stuff in this excerpt from Yahoo! TV‘s “Primetime in No Time,” but I may have missed something:

Here’s what I got:

• Overshadowed is one word, not two.
• The verb show should be shows.
• Mom, great though she may be, shouldn’t be capitalized in this context.
• The either…or correlative conjunction is totally messed up. It should be: …could be on either “Jersey Shore” or “The Cougar.”

Did I overlook anything?

You either win or lose

The writer of Yahoo! TV‘s “Daytime in No Time” is either a bit confused about correlative conjunctions or unconcerned about sounding a bit illiterate:

Either way it’s like that old coin flip: Heads I win, tails you lose.