Carefully editing planning was necessary

Here’s what the folks at Yahoo! Style could use: Some carefully planned editing. Or at least careful proofreading so that an adjective, and not an adverb, is used to modify a noun:

What a waist!

Fashion shows are becoming more and more inclusive as women with less-than-perfect bodies take to the runways. As noted by a Yahoo! Style writer, one model’s body is unique: Her waist is just a tad higher than most women’s. In fact, it’s just under her armpits:

I think it’s great! Not so great? The writer’s inability to match a verb (which should be suggest) with its plural subject and neglecting to hyphenate the adjective modern-day. But at least she spelled waist correctly, even if she can’t identify it.

Someone should go back to school

Someone (or maybe some two) should go back to school and figure out if back to school should be hyphenated when it’s used as an adjective. ‘Cause these folks at yahoo.com just can’t figure it out:

That looks kinda like this, except different:

It really just takes a few minutes to make a decision and communicate it to others to fix this mess. Don’t hold your breath.

Reader’s no-holds-barred reaction

Here’s my no-holds-barred reaction to this teaser on Yahoo! Celebrity: It sucks.

It sucks, but it doesn’t suck as hard as this writer’s attempt at the common expression.

Not a good day for Travel

I don’t often visit Yahoo! Travel. I had the impression that it was a well-written site that wouldn’t provide many examples of errors that would prove instructive to Terribly Write’s readers. Maybe today’s headlines are atypical, but they sure provide some great fodder for a blog post.

It looks like someone ripped off the hyphen in rip-offs, which needs it when it’s used as a noun:

This isn’t a brand-new error; it’s a brand-new error. The hyphen is often missing from the adjective:

And my favorite is this headline about a restaurant called Warren where you have to carry your own tray and serve yourself macaroni and cheese and greasy fried chicken:

The Airbnb home was once the residence of Warren Buffett.

On the off chance you’re a writer…

On the off chance that the writer for Yahoo! Style would like to improve her writing, I suggest she study some common English idioms (like on the off chance) as well as the use of the hyphen to form compound adjectives (like two-piece):

Laying it out in black and white

Let’s lay this out in black and white for the Yahoo! Celebrity writer: If you don’t know that fiancé is an engaged man (and fiancée is an engaged woman), perhaps you should refer to the man as betrothed. Or maybe boyfriend:

If you’re using it as an adjective, then black-and-white gets two hyphens. (As a noun, it doesn’t need those hyphens.)

So, Jessica Simpson posted a black-and-white photo on Instagram. Is it any surprise that it looked like she was wearing a black and white dress? (I really don’t know how the writer could tell what color the dress was.) Repeating a word isn’t the worst mistake a writer can make, but claiming she “was laid out” makes it sound like the poor woman was prepared for a funeral, not a wedding:

Finally, the writer alleges that her hand was “placed seductively over her eyebrow.” Unless her eyebrow is somewhere on the top of her head, I think the writer made a misstatement:

Do you feel bad about your grammar?

The writer for Yahoo! Shine shouldn’t feel bad about herself for making this mistake — a lot of people (especially if they write for Yahoo!) make the same grammatical goof:

As I’ve said before: If you’re trying to pick out a ripe peach by gently squeezing the fruit, but you’re wearing oven mitts, you might feel badly. If your emotional state is sad, depressed, anxious, or unhappy, you might feel bad.

Not exactly picture-perfect headline

The writer for Yahoo! Sports’ “Prep Rally” didn’t pull off a picture-perfect headline for a story about 5-year-olds:

Simpler, perfect-for-reading headlines

Sometimes I feel so lost, confused, and even dumb when reading headlines like this on Yahoo! Shine:

Am I supposed to simper — smile in a silly, self-conscious, and coy manner — because it’s perfect for fall sandwiches? Frankly, simpering doesn’t improve my Dagwood one bit. And when I’m not in the mood for a Dagwood Bumstead special, I’ll be looking for recipes for simpler, perfect-for-fall sandwiches.