Fun With Words
I am in the midst of copy editing some truly terrible text right now, so I thought I'd take a break and read a few articles on LATimes.com. And what did I see right on the front page? This sentence: "Renown chef Thomas Keller, who gave us the French Laundry, is inspired by In-N-Out."
But that's probably just a typo, and it will get fixed soon, I am sure. It's not nearly as funny as a sentence I read in the Santa Monica free paper on Monday when I was down in the Southland for a visit. I can't recall it verbatim, but the article was talking about the parking options near 3rd Street Promenade, and how the mall parking lot fees needed to come in line with the other public lots. It said something like, "We really need to bring the lots in parody with each other." Yes, that's right. Not parity, but parody. Well, that certainly makes it easy to parody!
That's probably the most egregious example of poor usage that I've seen lately, but this sentence gave me a chuckle, as well: "Our [program] provides ongoing training to our employees to ensure we remain fluid in the language of regulations and requirements." Clearly, the writer is not entirely fluent in the English language.
Okay, I think I'm getting a little punchy. But wouldn't you be, too, if you had to edit sentences like this? "The new Cardiac Chair by IoA features a reclining motion designed to be operated with a minimum of effort for patients of all conditions." I don't know which is worse: that a PR rep wrote such a terrible sentence, or that an editor at a trade magazine just copied and pasted it verbatim! What is the world coming to? Well, I guess I should consider myself lucky that so many people seem unable to grasp proper written English. If more people were adept at it, I might be out of a job.
But that's probably just a typo, and it will get fixed soon, I am sure. It's not nearly as funny as a sentence I read in the Santa Monica free paper on Monday when I was down in the Southland for a visit. I can't recall it verbatim, but the article was talking about the parking options near 3rd Street Promenade, and how the mall parking lot fees needed to come in line with the other public lots. It said something like, "We really need to bring the lots in parody with each other." Yes, that's right. Not parity, but parody. Well, that certainly makes it easy to parody!
That's probably the most egregious example of poor usage that I've seen lately, but this sentence gave me a chuckle, as well: "Our [program] provides ongoing training to our employees to ensure we remain fluid in the language of regulations and requirements." Clearly, the writer is not entirely fluent in the English language.
Okay, I think I'm getting a little punchy. But wouldn't you be, too, if you had to edit sentences like this? "The new Cardiac Chair by IoA features a reclining motion designed to be operated with a minimum of effort for patients of all conditions." I don't know which is worse: that a PR rep wrote such a terrible sentence, or that an editor at a trade magazine just copied and pasted it verbatim! What is the world coming to? Well, I guess I should consider myself lucky that so many people seem unable to grasp proper written English. If more people were adept at it, I might be out of a job.
posted by Astera @ 8:05 PM
2 Comments:
At 2:55 PM,
Bruingirl said…
It most certainly is easy to parody! LOL I got a good chuckle out of that one! :)
I got a packet in the mail today and the INFO SHEET said "what are clients say" instead of "what OUR clients say". I thought it was funny, esp since this is supposed to be their "first impression". I sent them an email saying that they needed a new copy editor. ;-)
At 6:50 AM,
Sean G. Kilkelly said…
I once heard someone wish someone else a Happy Valentime's Day!
Also, that so and so has old-timer's disease!
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