In the continuing saga of “You Write the Top, I’ll Write the Bottom,” we see that the Internet giant still hasn’t decided how to spell Internet:
You’d think that a company that kinda depends on the Internet for its very existence would have standardized the spelling by now and wouldn’t put such an embarrassment on its front page.
This article on Yahoo! Travel may be about the best zoos in the United States, but it represents some of the worst travel writing on the Internet. It’s shocking the number of mistakes made by someone who is a “managing editor” and an experienced travel writer.
This is how bad it can get:
It’s not an orange-colored, artificially flavored breakfast drink. It’s an orangutan. And the zoo calls it the Stingray Beach, with a capital B.
How did she screw this up so badly? The zoo is the Saint Louis Zoo and it’s in St. Louis, Missouri. Don’t go on a Saturday or Sunday expecting to see a concert. Although the writer claims concerts occur every weekend, they really occur only on Fridays and only between May 23 and August 29. Then there’s the case of the subject (admission) and its verb (which the writer thinks should be are):
The problem is, if she used the correct verb (is), then she’s got a really awkward sentence. That’s because she misplaced both. It belongs before “the zoo and the concert”: … admission to both the zoo and the concert is free.
I was expecting that if I went to this zoo, I’d be able to do more than just see the wolf cubs. Maybe I could bottle-feed them. Or dress them in coats and ties.
Again, the writer misplaced a modifier; this time it’s just. It should be: You won’t see just three cuddly wolf cubs; you’ll also see, etc., etc. etc.
How does a travel writer writing about zoos get another zoo’s name wrong? It’s Riverbanks Zoo and Garden (it’s not Zoos and it’s not Botanical):
OK, so maybe someone will explain to me how this project will create a new grizzly bear:
Would you trust the information in this article?
Are you a blogger? If so, do you check what you’ve written after it’s been posted? You should because you don’t want to commit the same mistakes that the people at Yahoo! News did:
If they’d looked at this after it was published, they might have noticed the different spellings of the same word and the HTML code for an apostrophe. Oops.
Boy, some companies are really possessive when it comes to their trademarks. Unilever is one of those companies and I hope that someone from Unilever doesn’t read this on the Yahoo! front page:
According to the company:
Popsicle®, Creamsicle®, Fudgsicle® and Yosicle® are registered trademarks of the Unilever Group of Companies and can only be used to identify the frozen confection products of Unilever.
The company goes to great length to describe the correct and incorrect uses of their trademarks. And then Unilever gets serious:
So now that you know the cold facts, do the cool thing and stay on the right side of the law. Use Popsicle®, Creamsicle®, Fudgsicle® and Yosicle® only to identify our products, use these trademarks correctly, and don’t use them for any other purpose without our permission. We appreciate your cooperation.
Terribly Write 