October Ouches

I really need to write about things other than grammar and spelling errors. They just hurt so badly that I can't stop.

This company sent an invitation to an anniversary gala that started with "so".

 

 

 

This National insurance company spelled "commercial" wrong on their website.

 

 

 

This company spelled "knowingly" wrong on their application.

 

 

 

From a high ranking executive: "may not of" instead of "may not have".

 

 

 

"There" instead of "their".

 

What is the proper etiquette for these things? We're not talking about the average Joe. We're talking about professional correspondence. Is it rude to point these errors out? I certainly don't want to point out errors to my management, unless I'm asked to review a document. I certainly don't want to sound condescending or talk down to anyone, but I'm sure there are other people out there who find these types of errors unprofessional.

 

 

Trickle Down Arghhh

Yes, it's another spelling vent. This is a snippet of an email we received from one of our highest ranking corporate officers:

"....we may of become too internally focused..."

I know this is a common writing mistake, because so many people hear "could have" or "could've" as "could of". It just saddens me to think people don't really know that the correct word is "have", not "of".

Perhaps we've become so audio-centric that no one reads anymore.

Eat, Craft, Eat, Craft

I love going to card workshops at our demonstrator Helena's house. She always has yummy snacks to keep us occupied between projects. She is a wonderful cook. This workshop was in early May so there is a hint of Cinco de Mayo in the menu.

 

We also made three great cards. I sent the birthday card to my sister, whose special day is mid-May, and you can never have two many sympathy cards, sadly. I can't post the third card as it going to go to a co-worker and I don't want to show it before delivering it to the recipient.

 

Being creative is just so calming. Who couldn't use more calm? I certainly can use some!

Who Did What Where?

While reviewing claims history for an account I was working on, I came across this description of a Workers Compensation claim:

"Employee was doing unknown activity that resulted in unknown injury of unknown area."

Try explaining that to a new carrier.

Grammar Police on Patrol - Vocabulary Division

In my business, I often search the internet looking for details on properties I am working on - such as year built, type of construction, number of stories, roof shape, etc. During these searches I often find myself on realtor websites who are selling units in these properties.

This one particular realtor repeatedly comes up with the closing paragraph "For discrete and professional service call me to ......" . Ouch ouch ouch.

Now, I know DISCRETE is a real word, but I don't for one second believe this realtor intended to use it instead of DISCREET.

I don't even want to wonder why someone shopping for a property needs a "discreet" realtor.

Postal Pause

This envelope was returned to my office as undeliverable - TWO MONTHS after it was sent.

This was mailed to a town 22 miles away from my office. Not across the USA, not to another country, but to a town less than an hour's drive away.

Pony Express took only 10 days to deliver mail from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. It makes you wonder where this envelope was loitering.

On the bright side, while doing some brief research on the Pony Express, I came across all these postmarks.

So cool!  This makes me want to be creative and make greeting cards!

Email Pain

I opened my office email this morning to find a link to a local news report along with this suggestion from one of our Vice Presidents.

Might be worth sharing with your perspective clientele. 

Perspective. Not prospective. He probably doesn't even know he used the wrong word.

I'm sure some day I'll be rudely presented with a history of all my spelling and grammar errors. Until then, I'll continue to grind my teeth about things like this.

Snark Attack February 2017 Edition

Ok, here is my usual preface explaining I am a grammar and spelling snob and those types of errors jump off the page right in to my brain. It doesn't make the authors of the errors bad people, it just makes me a crazy person.

In the past week, I've seen an internal email wherein the author sent out a mass email using the word "orderves" rather than hors  d'oeuvres. I certainly understand this, as it is a word that makes no sense spelling wise or phonetically. It is a very common, easy to make mistake. As for me, this was one of my spelling words in grammar or middle school and it was drilled into the class relentlessly and occasionally appeared as a surprise word in subsequent spelling tests. I maintain a general idea of how the word is spelled, but usually look it up before using it, if spell-check hasn't corrected it for me. And if all else fails, just substitute the word "appetizers".

Let's move on to a second internal email. The author sent out a mass email using the word "attain" instead of "obtain" several times in his message. Though I cringed, I thought perhaps the author was using talk-to-text/email or otherwise rushing and after all, attain actually is a word, so of course spell-check didn't correct it.

But. This. Makes. Me. Crazy.

 

I know many people insert apostrophes (incorrectly) into words that are simply plural and not possessive. But this is from a shiny marketing communication that was titled - you guessed it - "Underwriting Reminder's".

 

 

This is not from someone in my office. This is not from a small locally domiciled company. This is not from a large regional carrier.  This not even a national company. This is from a huge International Insurance Company (albeit most of their business is in the USA), instantly recognizable by their logo.  Don't they have people, or even off site marketing departments, that review, proofread, correct? I believe this was probably composed by a local marketing representative without being run past anyone else first. But seriously, who sends out a "professional" document without having someone take a look at it first? Who knows how many insurance agents received this document? Of course, many people wouldn't even see the errors because they also suffer from an apostrophe disorder.

 

Argh.