bad writing examples

Refer to older posts…

there, their or they’re?

Published 21 March, 2008 | By TashWord

With one exception*, my writing articles and blog entries assume some basic knowledge – if you are writing for business purposes, I assume you know the obvious rules of capital letters to start sentences, common spelling rules and the idea of paragraphs.

So I have never written about there/their/they’re – until now!

I have seen these words misused a number of times recently, and getting an email today from someone who calls herself a writer with the sentence “Their are some great news items ” was the last straw for me! (How can they own ‘are some great news’?)

If this is obvious to you, I apologise! If it isn’t, I hope this helps and I apologise for not helping you sooner!

There, they’re or their?

All 3 words sound exactly the same, but have totally different meanings and uses. Using the wrong word can make a sentence very confusing or just make the writer look silly – neither is what you want in your business (or other!) writing.

They’re is short for they are – so it is used as “They’re running late today”

There is not here – so it is used as “We will go there tomorrow”

Their shows they own something – it is used as “John and Betty will bring their car, too”

Imagine the following sentence with the wrong there/they’re/their spellings…

“They’re bringing their own car so we will meet them there.”

Use your words wisely!

* the exception is this article on basic grammar rules which I wrote to help a trainer with a communications module he was teaching.

Posted in bad writing examples, grammar & details, Monday Meanings | Tagged grammar, meaning, spelling, their, there, they're, use | 2 Comments

Stick to your topic

Published 16 February, 2008 | By TashWord

When writing, especially if it is an article or blog post, it isn’t hard to get distracted by related topics and ideas. But if someone has chosen to read about a certain topic, that is what they expect to read about.

Changing topics within a piece of business writing can confuse your readers and reduce your ‘expert’ status. This is especially the case if you are presenting a number of points about a topic (such as ’10 ways to save money’ or ‘tips for reducing water waste in your office’.)

As an example, I recently read an article listing various ways to sell a product. It started with market stalls, direct sales and wholesaling, but then went onto networking and advertising which are not sales methods although they can increase the number of sales made.

If you do want to include points that are not part of your original topic, change the topic to indicate the scope of the writing. Alternatively, write two or more pieces, each about a separate although related topic, instead of one piece on different topics.

Posted in bad writing examples, blogging, newsletter content, writing | Tagged distractions, focus, topic | 5 Comments

Does it make sense?

Published 8 February, 2008 | By TashWord

I recevied an email about some workshops. In the description of one workshop was the following:

The workshop is an afternoon teas are included introduction to the advantages of web accessibility.

It doesn’t make sense! And doesn’t bode well for better web accessiblity if that is their standard!

Yes, we can figure out they probably mean “The workshop is an introduction to the advantages of web accessibility and afternoon teas are included” but they obviously didn’t proof read their own information so it doesn’t give a very professional image to their courses.

Of course, most of us would also assume there was only one afternoon tea being given, too!

Posted in bad writing examples | Tagged professional image, sense, understandability, workshop | 4 Comments

Link to relevant information

Published 7 February, 2008 | By TashWord

When writing about a product or information elsewhere, ensure people know what you are referring to. Your words will then make sense, especially if you are giving instructions or reviewing the item in question.

For example, I just read an email that said “Just go to the very bottom of the page and find my items” There was no link and there were no items listed at the end of the email, so I had no idea what page I should be looking at the bottom of!

If you are sending an email and referring to a particular product, webpage, article or whatever, include a link to it or attach it to the email. That way people are not confused and don’t have to waste time trying to find what you are writing about.

Likewise, if you are writing in your blog or on your website, add links to your products, articles and testimonials instead of referring to them and letting people find the information themselves. For example, my article about clear communications may give you more information about why to include a link. But are you going to search for it? Much easier if I say the article is available by clicking on this link, isn’t it?

Posted in bad writing examples, writing | Tagged link, relevance | 3 Comments

A copyrighting expert?

Published 15 January, 2008 | By TashWord

Back in November, I wrote a post about the difference between copyright and copywrite. If you think about the actual words, it isn’t hard to tell them apart either (copyright is about rights for instance.)

Yet I have just come across a website with the following sentence:

we have combined many years of copyrighting skills to create magical letters for every occasion.

As much as the misuse of copyrighting annoys me, it being misused in a sentence where the writer claims to be an expert writer is shocking. Of course, I am also curious as how to someone combines years to create anything.

Before I get on my soap box about people posing as experts and (in my opinion) trying to fool people*, let me give you a much better version of the above sentence:

Together, we have many years of copywriting experience which we use to create magical letters for every occasion.

* I don’t know anything else about the writing skills of the site using the above sentence so I am not commenting on their level of expertise or claiming they are unethical. It is just a general comment that I hate people presenting themselves as more than they are and errors such as this are sometimes an indicator of such behaviour.

Posted in bad writing examples | Tagged appropriate, copyright, copywright, use | Leave a comment

SMS shorthand

Published 12 January, 2008 | By TashWord

Like pretty much anyone else, if I am sending a SMS message I may use short forms and abbreviated words – it’s quicker and easier on a small screen and keyboard. Although it is becoming less necessary with smart phones.

However, as a professional writer, I cringe every time I see shortened words in other contexts.

There is no need to use SMS shortcuts on a website, in a newsletter or blog, or in any other business or professional document. Personally, I don’t think there’s much need to use it in personal emails or letters, either, but I’ll leave that alone!

Reading information about a business, we want to know if we can trust the business and that they will provide a professional service*. If the business can’t even be bothered writing out full words, they do not inspire trust that they will provide much for customers.

Examples…

1. Only days ago a friend forwarded me an email she had received. The subject of the email was “Here’s to a gr8 ’08!” and she forwarded it to me with the comment that she hadn’t even bothered reading it because the subject “really put me off!”

With something like an email subject, you only have one chance to entice people to read it, so don’t lose that chance by not using full words.

2. A while ago I was asked to review someone’s website for a service based business where she really needed people to trust her. The entire homepage was full of U (instead of you), lower case letters and other SMS-type words. Had I not been reviewing it, I would not have even read the page – again, you only have a short time to grab a visitor’s interest on a website so make first impressions good.

So, go back to basics – use good grammar, spelling and expression to present a clear message even if you think your audience understands or relates to SMS texting language. Understanding it is not the same as respecting it away from mobile phones.

* By professional service, I mean service that is appropriate, courteous and business -like so it includes customer service in a retail setting as well as services from a service provider such as an accountant, lawyer or writer.

Posted in bad writing examples, grammar & details, web content, writing | Tagged context, professionality, shorthand, SMS | 7 Comments

Capital letters…

Published 4 January, 2008 | By TashWord

There are certain times when you must use a capital letter:

to start a sentence
for a proper noun (e.g. the name of a person, place or event)
in acronyms (e.g. the ATO, ASAP, TV)

The rest of the time, lower case letters are not only suitable – they are correct and preferred.

It Is Very Annoying To Read A Sentence Where Every Word Starts With A Capital Letter Isn’t It? And it takes more time and effort to type, too! Despite what some marketers would have you think, these extra capital letters do not make your message clearer or more important, and they certainly won’t bring in more sales. In fact, many people will see all those extra capitals and consider it a tacky attempt to manipulate them and therefore are less likely to even read their message.

It also just looks like you don’t know much about grammar or appearing professional.

And I’m not just talking about using capitals for every word, either. For instance, I received an email stating:

The first of these will address issues in Web Writing. The other two will focus on Web Accessibility: a half day Overview workshop and a full day Techniques Workshop. These are excellent programs.

There is no reason for ‘web writing’, ‘web accessibility’ or ‘techniques workshop’ to start with capitals – they are not proper nouns and shouldn’t be treated a such. As for ‘overview’, I can’t imagine why someone thought it needed a capital letter!

I find misuse of capitals bad enough – but for someone advertising a writing course, I expect much better than this! I wonder if they addressed the issue of using capitals in web writing – online, capitals are considered as yelling so really should be avoided in your web and email writing.

Posted in bad writing examples, grammar & details | Tagged acronyms, Capital letters, proper noun, start of a sentence | 4 Comments

Check details – and check again

Published 22 December, 2007 | By TashWord

Let’s face it not everyone will notice or care about a couple of small spelling or grammatical mistakes. But getting the details correct is absolutely critical.

Make sure you go back and check details in your work – whether it is something you have written, a professional wrote for you or a graphic designer has worked on for you. Ideally, get someone else to check your document just for details.

If in doubt at how easy it can be to make such mistakes, here are some real life examples…

A marketing flyer for a local shopping strip where each shop added their ad looked great except for one little detail – they spelt the name of the suburb incorrectly! And I know because I saw the flyer in circulation so it went out without being corrected.
A course registration form included a second page with the following under the header:
Invoice Date: 18 December 2008
Event: Course Name, Melbourne – 20 February 2008
Obviously, prompt payment isn’t an issue with these people!
A business sent out invitations to an event that cost them a lot of money to arrange. The invitations were sent out stating a day and date that didn’t match so they risked many people not turning up.
500 business cards were printed with the wrong mobile phone number because no one checked the original source. Luckily, the problem was noticed before any cards were given out.
100,000 letterhead were printed before anyone realised the disclaimer mentioned another (related) company name. Could you afford this sort of reprint?
a book on small business quoted someone but used the wrong first name for her, which put her offside and made it hard for readers to research that woman
the male CEO of a Melbourne company was named in a photo in an industry magazine – however, the photo was a woman and the article was not even related to the CEO or his company.

So while you won’t be alone with such mistakes, your credibility is better if you take the time to make sure details are present and correct. The cost of not checking can be huge.

Posted in bad writing examples, grammar & details | Tagged check, details, mistakes, research | Leave a comment

Misuse of English

Published 20 December, 2007 | By TashWord

I found the following sign (posted in Germany’s Black Forest) to be a funny translation – at least I hope the translating is what caused the bad expression!

It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose.

I wonder what other sexes there are as men and women are only examples of the possibilities!

Want it written better?

Unmarried males and females must not share a tent in the Black Forest Camping Site.

Makes more sense and is simpler, but nowhere near as funny 🙂

Posted in bad writing examples, bit off track | Tagged amusing, bad expression, translations | 7 Comments

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