An Idaho woman, Laura Silsby, is under investigation for potentially kidnapping children out of Haiti with her group of Baptist church members. She also has a laundry list of other indiscretions, all financial, that have absolutely nothing to do with the construction of this sentence by The Associated Press:
In the last year alone saw her home go into foreclosure and watched a number of legal proceedings against her and her business wend their way through Idaho’s courts.
You can get the meaning of this sentence as it is, but it could read a lot smoother. Try this instead:
“The last year alone saw her home go into foreclosure…” Or: “In the last year alone, she saw her home go into foreclosure and watched a number of legal proceedings…”
You get the idea. It seems that the author of this piece had two sentences in her head at the same time and attempted (unsuccessfully) to combine them. You can read the article here.
Whoo hoo! So rare to find a news article without any typos. It’s time to celebrate! An article published by The Associated Press on MSNBC entitled “Obama vows to address record deficit woes” has not a single typo. Read it for yourself and then tell me what you think. I couldn’t find a single one.
As a copywriter and editor, it’s my job to find all manner or grammatical errors and smite them wherever they be. What makes my job a lot easier is if there are none to begin with. Such occurrences are worthy of praise. Kudos to you AP. Nicely done!
Compliments to MSNBC for posting this article on their site, Ethics panel: No punishment for Sen. Burris, and the The Associated Press for writing it. Negative kudos, however, for an overlooked typo.
The Associated Press wrote:
The U.S. Senate Ethics Committee has completed its review into this matter and found that Sen. Burris actions have brought discredit on him and the Senate.
What a seasoned copywriter would have written:
The U.S. Senate Ethics Committee has completed its review into this matter and found that Sen. Burris‘ actions have brought discredit on him and the Senate.
A small correction, but necessary for grammatical perfection.
The beating of singer, Rihanna, at the the hands of her abusive boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, is still a hot topic nine months later. You can read all about it in this short article off the MSN homepage: “Rihanna: Going back to Brown after beating ‘wrong.’”
It’s because this topic is still front page news that I chose to highlight a typo in this Associated Press article.
What The Associated Press published:
NEW YORK (AP) — Rihanna said Thursday that she regrets returning to ex-boyfriend Chris Brown after he left her bruised and battered during an February assault, warning other women facing domestic violence to not let themselves be blinded by love.
What copywriter Amber would have written:
NEW YORK (AP) — Rihanna said Thursday that she regrets returning to ex-boyfriend Chris Brown after he left her bruised and battered during a February assault, warning other women facing domestic violence to not let themselves be blinded by love.
The letter ‘n’. Who knew it could be so pesky?
