End the reign of error!

It’s not unusual to make a teensy, weensy mistake when you’re writing. A simple typo, like typing it instead of is, is the kind of error most readers can overlook. But there are some mistakes that readers can’t overlook and can’t forgive. One of those is misspelling the name of your subject and doing it in a headline. That’s what the writer did on Yahoo! Sports‘ “Prep Rally” when writing about a team from McDonough School:

If only there were a way the writer could see the name of the high school — like a photo of the team wearing jerseys with the school’s name. Wait, wait! This article is accompanied by a photo and this time the writer actually spelled McDonogh correctly. Unfortunately, he misspelled Baltimore — but it’s not his fault. He didn’t have a picture of Baltimore in front of him:

But that’s just a typo, which any good proofreader would have spotted. But this is just an out-and-out error:

Perhaps it’s time the writer handed the reins over to a real editor or proofreader — one who knows that a monarch reigns and a horse is controlled with reins.

Steve Carell would be so much better

You know what would be better than this from Yahoo! Screen‘s “Daily Shot”? If the writer had taken the time to learn how to spell Steve Carell’s name. And if the writer had taken the time to figure out how to write a link:

You’d think that someone working for one of the biggest Internet companies in the world would know how to do both.

Writer confesses she doesn’t care about accuracy

I don’t know if the writer or editor is responsible for this headline on Yahoo! TV, but whoever wrote this shows a total disregard for accuracy:

The guy’s name is Ricky Gervais.

My bologna has a first name

Anyone who lived in the States in the ’70s and owned a television is familiar with this ditty:

My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R.
My bologna has a second name, it’s M-A-Y-E-R.
Oh I love to eat it every day. If you ask me why I’ll say,
‘Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.

So, I’m guessin’ that the writer for Yahoo! Shine grew up in Somalia or Djibouti or Mumbai or some place where they’re unlikely to eat Oscar Mayer meats or see the Wienermobile:

Sketchy spelling

How great a job is this!? You write about shoes for Yahoo! Shopping and you don’t have to know anything about shoes:

Well, maybe you do have to know something. You just don’t have to know how to spell the brand Skechers.

Was it the astronaut or the playwright?

Was the writer for yahoo.com thinking of astronaut Alan Shepard or playwright Sam Shepard when writing this?

The dog breed is German shepherd.

Give up the reins

If you make mistakes like those made by the author of Yahoo! Sports‘ “Puck Daddy,” you should consider letting someone take the reins and edit your work:

If you don’t know that a monarch reigns and a horse is controlled by reins, you need a little editorial support.

If you’re writing an article about Glen Gulutzan, the editor might let you know if you misspell his name:

And if that editor knows that whom is the objective case of who (and is therefore correct as the object of a preposition), hand over the reins. Just be sure that the editor knows that when a subject is joined by or, the verb (which should be is) agrees with the noun closer to it:

Harassment embarrassment

Any self-respecting writer or editor would be embarrassed to have made this misspelling on the Yahoo! front page:

An infamous mistake

Many writers believe that infamous is a synonym for famous. It’s not. But they naively use that word without understanding its connotation. And nowhere do writers use it incorrectly more than on Yahoo!.

Now staffers at Yahoo! News have come up with a new infamous mistake:

Apparently Yahoo!’s writers aren’t the only ones who believe that’s a real word. It’s common enough to appear in the Urban Dictionary, which defines imfamous as “When idiots try to spell ‘infamous’ but get it wrong.”

Your mother would be so proud

So, you finally landed a job writing for a big, hot-shot Internet company. Your mother must be so proud to see what you’re producing for Yahoo! Shine! Unless, of course, she’s like my mother. In that case she’d be appalled to see that you don’t know compliment from complement and that you think pharaoh is a proper noun:

She’d be mortified to think that you put an apostrophe in the plural Kardashians:

She’d be ashamed to realize that you didn’t bother to research Wilson Phillips and Chynna Phillips — just so you got the spelling right:

If your mother is like mine, she’d be grateful that you have a job — and that this article doesn’t have a byline.