Proof reader please

[Esther]

Proofreading is a dying art, wouldn't  you say? 
 Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter   This one I caught in the SGV Tribune the other day and called the Editorial Room and asked who wrote this.  It took two or three readings before the editor realized that what he was reading was impossible!! !  They put in a correction the next day.   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says         No crap, really? Ya think? 
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers   Now that's taking things a bit far! 
  ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -- 
 Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over           What a guy!   
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ------   
Miners Refuse to Work after Death    No-good-for- nothing' lazy so-and-so's! 
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ------ 
Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant    See if that works any better than a fair trial! 
  ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
War Dims Hope for Peace    I can see where it might have that effect! 
  Local  High School Dropouts Cut in Half     Chainsaw Massacre all over again! 
 ************ ********* ********* ********* ********* *** 
Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors         Boy, are they tall! 
 ************ ********* ********* ********* ****   
And the winner is....   
Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead       Did I read that right? 
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

[Desertponder]

Proof reading is almost a dead art. It drives me nuts! No one seems to care anymore whether something is spelled right, good grammar, etc.
We don't even proof much here at the paper anymore. I hate reading the paper and seeing spelling errors and I complain about the level of errors in the paper all the time but it falls on deaf ears. No one else cares. Its just too much effort to go to the trouble to proof.

[Holldoll]

It makes me crazy to find mistakes in publications. I was reading my manual on my blackberry the other day and there was a spelling error in there, it wasn't even spelled as a different word, spell check should have caught it.  I went to the Newseum in D.C. and in their bathrooms they have tiles will funny headlines on them.  Makes for an entertaining bathroom experience!

[Brian]

I know what you mean Shanna.  Poor grammar is one of my pet peeves, especially the misuse of There, Their and They're, Your and You're etc.  Although I shouldn't judge, I did notice I left off a letter on my last post, but I went in and corrected it.  I guess we all make mistakes!!

Holldoll,  I notice grammatical errors on some of the news website I read and it drives me nuts.  Aren't these journalists supposed to be professionals?  My sister Karen has always great with the English language, and when I was in school, I'd have her proof read my papers, and I learned a lot from her critiques...how to better compose sentences etc.  I like to think I learned more from her than the teachers.

[Esther]

My DH thinks I'm crazy because we'll be driving down the road and I'm having a fit because a restaurant marque has a word misspelled. Yesterday I saw a picture of a deer on Facebook and the woman who had written the label for the picture wrote, "In ARE back yard". This woman is the mother of three kids. As I am out of the work force and not doing much writing anymore, I often question how a word is spelled. SO I HIT SPELLCHECK. Just like now I wondered about marque. So when I ran spell check, I discovered I had left an S off misspelled.

[Kittyzee]

Yes, it bugs the crap out of me too Esther.  There used to be a little mom and pop store in a tiny town you would pass through to go to the mall.  I always made a game out of the handmade signs in the windows because they ALWAYS had words misspelled.  To this day I have a hard time just saying "eggs" instead of "egges".   

Seriously, I have a hard time taking a journalist SERIOUSLY if they use weird, made-up words, dumb catch phrases, or newspapers who can't spell or make serious grammatical errors.  These people are JOURNALISTS--they are supposed to know how to use the English language.   

[Esther]

Years ago, BC (before computers), the bank sent out their warning messages on paper to the various branches. Over and over, they would refer to stuff that had been "stollen". One day I found a dictionary and copied the description of "stolen" and "stollen" and sent it to the area responsible for the notices. The interoffice envelopes we used were 9" X 12" and had lines on the front for us to reuse them over and over so the line above where I had addressed the envelope, said our branch name. The next day, my boss received a not so nice phone call telling her that the employees at our branch didn't have enough to do and their department didn't appreciate the correction.