This speaks volumes

This headline on Yahoo Sports speaks volumes about the proofreading skills of its editors:

To paraphrase the occupant of the Oval Office, they consult themselves because they have “a very good brain.” Except it should be Brian.

More thought, time and energy might help

The thought, time and energy that go into editing have not increased exponentially on Yahoo! Sports:

More thought, time and energy might have led to correcting the mismatched plural subject and singular verbs.

I hate to be a tattletale…

… but the editors at Yahoo! Sports broke up a perfectly good word:

Yahoo clinches worst headline of the day

Yahoo! Sports clinches the title for worst headline of the day with this mismatch of a singular subject and a plural verb:

Clippin’ the Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers are a professional basketball team. Their home court is in Los b, according to Yahoo! Sports:

There’s another team with the same name, but it’s located in Los Angeles, which isn’t anywhere near Los b.

Once is a typo

When I read this on the Yahoo! Sports home page, I was sure it was a typo because every high school graduate knows how to spell Philippines, right?

Wrong. Here it is again, in a yuuuuge headline:

What are the chances that the same typo would appear twice? Or three times?

Once is a typo. Twice is a misspelling. Three times is an embarrassment.

How did you arrive at that word?

I’m wondering about the Yahoo! Sports editor and her arrival at this wording:

The phrasal verb is arrive at and the noun phrase is arrival at.

Take a peek at this!

Take a peek at this excerpt from Yahoo! Sports:

If that doesn’t pique your interest in learning about homophones, nothing will.

Almost right

Almost every reader of Yahoo! Sports would question this wording, wouldn’t they?

It struck me as just plain wrong to use most instead of almost. But apparently some authorities consider it acceptable in informal speech, but advise against using it in formal writing. And almost all of them also add: It’s best to use almost, rather than most, in similar situations, like almost everyone, almost everybody, almost everything.

Buster Posey, scrappy player

Buster Posey may be a scrappy baseball player, but I think the writer for Yahoo! Sports should scrap this word and use scraped instead: