Let’s face it, the writer for Yahoo! TV‘s “Daytime in No Time” has no idea what let’s means:
The contraction let’s is short for let us. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, in this context it is “used as an auxiliary in the imperative to express a command, request, or proposal.”
Studies have shown that grammatical errors, misspellings, and typos have a negative effect on a writer’s credibility. So, what do these goofs from Yahoo! Shine say about the author? Would you trust a writer who makes a simple typo?
And then follows it up with a misspelling? :
(Seriously, is there any excuse for misspelling weaning when you have a spell-checker?)
There are three little letters I have for the writer: S-V-A. That’s Subject-Verb-Agreement. Try it some time.
For Lisa Whelchel, it must be quite surprising to your name misspelled, as well as the name of the character you played on TV. (That would be Blair.) As for a scalding tongue, well, let’s just say that unless the tongue is actually burning something else, it’s probably just scalded.
Really? So the misspelling of Whelchel wasn’t just a typo. And neither was the misspelling of Blair. What can you expect from a writer who can’t decide if mom time should be capitalized and who has not the slightest clue how to punctuate. (It should be “Facts of Life’s” Blair.)
More with the messed-up Whelchel! And now mom time is capitalized. This article is just chock-full of rookie mistakes. (And by “rookie” I mean I know 10-year-olds who could write better.)
Do you think I’m being too harsh on the writer because she keeps misspelling Lisa Whelchel’s name? Nah. Because the writer was kind enough to include this photo in the article, so that we could all point and laugh (if we were mean girls):
Do you think the writer was not smart enough to look at the book cover? Or was she just too lazy? Or a combination of both? Because she still can’t spell that name; maybe because it’s really, really, really hard to copy a name when it’s right in front of you:
But let’s be honest. The poor writer is grammatically challenged. And she has a problem with names — any names. Like Soleil Moon Frye, whose last name is actually Frye:
Another typo? Nah, one sentence later she still thinks the actress’s last name is Moon Frye. It’s kinda like calling JFK “Fitzgerald Kennedy.”
Would you trust this writer? Me? I wouldn’t trust her to write a grocery list.
Who was that “Elizabeth” on “The View”? I know that Elisabeth Hasselbeck is one of the ladies on the morning talk show. But Elizabeth? I have no idea who that is. Let’s just say the writer for Yahoo! TV‘s “Primetime in No Time” made a teensy error in the name (and omitted the apostrophe in a contraction):
Apparently when this article was written for Yahoo! Shine there wasn’t an editor in sight:
That might be why this word is indistinguishable from a wrong word:
When did cottage cheese become a proper noun? Uh, never. And when did Jell-o become a common one? Uh, only in the writer’s mind. Can anyone explain what “in an era where less processed foods are healthier” means? Even if the writer had used the correct word when instead of where, I’d still be lost. And let’s talk about her inability to distinguish a contraction from a verb and a typo from right word:
Perhaps an editor might have spotted the an extra word, misplaced punctuation, and a misspelled Bieber and pomade:
It takes a great deal of moxie to use a Latin abbreviation when your English is so wobbly. The correct abbreviation is et al. The Internet still requires a capital letter. The plural of BlackBerry is BlackBerrys. (The whole “change the Y to I and add ES doesn’t apply to proper nouns.)
How does the writer get away with errors that proliferate in her writing?
I’m scratching my head and dusting dandruff off my keyboard. I’m trying to imagine why an Internet giant like Yahoo! would allow this to happen. How does a writer who has made more than 50 mistakes in a single article continue to write for Yahoo! Shine? Could it be that Shine is a site for women and that Yahoo! has no respect for its audience, their need for accurate information, or their ability to identify crap?
A reader might not notice the hyphen dropped from backed-up. But anyone with an IQ above room temperature would know that a cruise ship cannot carry 45,000 people. Anyone (even a woman) would know that passengers and crew can’t be aboard a cruise, but could be on a cruise ship.
Most high school graduates know that there needs to be a comma after a city, state combination and that an apostrophe is not an acceptable substitute for a quotation mark:
A spell-checker would have found this typo, so why doesn’t the writer use one?
A proofreader would have removed the apostrophe and S from she’s and would have ensured that Internet was capitalized. I’ll let the hopefully slide, but I can’t ignore the fact that the writer is hoping that the tug boats return safely. It might be more meaningful if the cruise ship returned safely:
After all that, let’s hope that the writer gets help from an editor, preferably one who respects women readers. Maybe the editor would also know how to form the plural of a name and supply a missing word or two:
Where’s the question? Maybe it’s in the mind of the writer for Yahoo! Shine ’cause it’s not in her writing:
Also not in her writing? A single error-free paragraph.
The writer is no stranger to errors, some of which are the result of her own arrogance. What makes a writer think she knows how to spell a name, especially one as unusual as Michaele?
She drops small words like the. And she doesn’t know the difference between a verb (like lets) and contraction (like let’s). She adds words and punctuation that produce nonsense:
She has no idea when to use a semicolon instead of comma, but thinks a comma is necessary to separate a subject from a verb:
Punctuation errors may be the result of ignorance. But misspelling a name is the result of arrogance.
It’s shocking that a professional writer for Yahoo! Shine continues to make some of the most egregious (and humorous) mistakes on the Web. Maybe it’s time that Yahoo! hire some adult supervision for this gal.
LOL. So let’s just say she’s punctuation-challenged:
Seriously? Did she write this article on her cell phone? Srsly, you guys? What person over the age of 11 uses that? What employer would pay a writer to use text-speak? Compared to that, the missing a before camel is insignificant:
Was she so distracted by the picture of Marisa Miller that she forgot how to spell her name here:
and here?
WTF? Are there more words here than necessary?
Apparently it’s faster to text lowercase letters than caps, which might account for the unorthodox spelling of what should be Orthodox:
LOL! This is hilarious:
LMFAO at this mess! It’s srsly hilarious.
There’s a certain cachet to being a writer — but only if you’re a good writer. The writer of this article on Yahoo! Shine lacks the required quality that would give her that distinction.
There’s no glory in misspelling model Bar Refaeli’s name:
Nor in misspelling trophy in a photo caption:
So let’s look at another of her mistakes to see if she deserves the cachet of a writer:
Nope. And it’s confirmed. She still can’t spell Bar Refaeli:
Writing doesn’t get its shine without a little proofreading and editing. Perhaps she’d earn a bit of shine with a little support from someone who knows the difference between a possessive pronoun and a contraction:
More cachet-killing errors?
I don’t care how wealthy he is, if he’s a hotelier, he doesn’t get special treatment. His cachet? Perhaps it’s his ability to use the correct word. And maybe he’s really well-dressed. And maybe this writer hasn’t earned the cachet of a writer.
It could have been a clever, humorous article about male lesbians, or mesbians. Instead it’s just a mess. The article, on Yahoo! Shine, illustrates how grammatical errors, misspellings, and other goofs can turn a writer from the source of humor to the target of derision.
Not all errors, however, are horrifying. This lowercased Ani DiFranco isn’t horrible, just careless:
The apostrophe needed to indicate that some numerals are missing is a rookie mistake. But when it’s missing in let’s (to indicate it’s a contraction of let us), it’s misleading:
There’s a missing word in “reminded her about breast cancer checks,” and a verb (like was) is needed before “way too.” Eyebrow is one word and a sentence needs some sort of punctuation to show it’s ended. I recommend a period before the right parenthesis.
Unless the markets are selling actual farmers, there should be an apostrophe in farmers’ markets:
Matte sounds like some sort of flat coffee drink. I’d prefer a latte:
Why, oh why, would someone put a hyphen here?
Perhaps if the writer had a dictionary on her bookshelf, and referred to it occasionally, she wouldn’t make two words out of one and wouldn’t misspell Anais Nin:
I have no idea who or what a “nag chopra” is, but the incense is called Nag Champa and it might be in the hands of a Buddha on a windowsill:
More errors like splitting pickup
misspelling patchouli and misplacing a period might be overlooked by some readers, but not all:
Clearly there’s a misspelling here, but what about the capitalized Mesbian? Who knows if that’s correct? Not the writer, who coined the term and can’t decide if it’s a proper or common noun:
Jeez. Look something up, will ya? It’s Adrian Grenier and prototype, not these messes:
Yet another typo (or considering this writer’s spelling ability, it might just be a misspelling):
And did she could actually think this is a word?
More proof that this spelling-challenged writer shouldn’t be allowed out on the Web without benefit of an editor:
Honey, it’s Patagonia. And you’ve turned a potentially entertaining article into a mess.
Is this the most ridiculous statement to ever appear on Yahoo! Shine? “Her rubbed her back.” Really? Let’s be charitable and call that a typo and not a grammatical gaffe. But I have to call the break up of breakup with a hyphen an error:
This is officially the worst misspelling of Reichen Lehmkuhl:
Let’s get this straight: Let’s is a contraction (for let us) and officiator is not a word (the official word is officiant):
Terribly Write 