Lightening the load

The Yahoo! Style “marketing editor” should be lightening this spelling of lightning by removing the E:

Lightening the load

Here’s one way of lightening the load in a lightning-fast way for your readers: Use the correct word. Don’t fall into the trap that this Yahoo! Travel writer finds herself in: Learn the difference between words that sound alike (or nearly alike):

Lightening the load

After I got over my horror at seeing the pronoun it used to refer to the plural planes, I thought I was more or less immune to the writing mistakes I was sure to find in this article on Yahoo! Travel:

But I was wrong. I’m appalled that a professional writer thinks that lightening is something that can strike a plane. It is not. It is the act of making a plane lighter. The scary stuff in the sky is lightning.

Lightening an announcement

What was the writer for yahoo.com thinking by lightening the word announcement by one letter?

Maybe the writer was struck by lightning just before sitting down at the keyboard. Yeah, that’s it.

Maybe you should slow down

Was it the writer’s lightning quick keystrokes that led to this homophonic horror on Yahoo! News?

Nah. The writer just doesn’t appreciate the difference between lightning (that flash of light in the sky) and lightening (which is the act of making something lighter).

What are the odds?

The odds of being struck by lightning are about the same as the odds of finding an error-free article on Yahoo! News’ “Who Knew?”

Spider-Man, Steven Seagal and Lightning Bolt

That’s what the writer for Yahoo! News’ “Who Knew?” should have written: Spider-Man here:

and Steven Seagal and Lightning Bolt here:

Lightening the load with lightning-fast speed

I wonder how many mistakes a writer for yahoo.com has to make before being fired. In some situations, someone could be terminated with lightning-fast speed, especially if they made a mistake like this:

If Yahoo! actually employed editors and proofreaders, removing weak writers could be lightening their load.

The New York Times would not make that mistake

Oh no it didn’t! When I read this on Yahoo! Shine, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Had the Gray Lady actually made this mistake?

Don’t be silly. Of course not. The Yahoo! writer screwed up and substituted the word that means “making light or lighter or brightening” for the word lightning.

Screwing up with lightning speed

How fast is “lightening speed”? Is it the rate it takes to bleach a red T-shirt pink? Is it as fast as lightning speed, which is the rate at which Yahoo! Shine writers make mistakes?