Spelling mistakes, bad grammar in the press....

[wurzel]

I read the Telegraph because the standard of grammar in other rags has been somewhat atrocious of late (due to overreliance on Word spellchecker no doubt). However, this surpasses all that has gone before, I mean a headline FFS!

"Stock market plunges as of recession evidence mounts"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

[DS23]

terrible? what they were thinking of!

[Bagpuss]

I read the Telegraph because the standard of grammar in other rags has been somewhat atrocious of late (due to overreliance on Word spellchecker no doubt). However, this surpasses all that has gone before, I mean a headline FFS!

"Stock market plunges as of recession evidence mounts"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Perhaps "as of" is the new "off of"

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I see schoolboy howlers on a regular basis, I think some of it is to do with attitudes - I usually get snarled at if I (however gently) point something out. I have a colleague who reverses i.e and e.g. but moans if I point it out when asked (by her) to review stuff she's written.

Surely people wouldn't be so nasty if we pointed out what was causing their SQL to fail, so why is always "get a life" if we point out what is causing their English to fail.

Before anyone starts:

1) I am not immune from errors, but I'm happy to have them pointed out.
2) You have dyslexia - I know, my brother-in-law has it.

[The Lone Gunman]

I think they have missed a whole word out there. FEAR.

[Mich the Tester]

Perhaps they’re just as poorly educated as the dubious primates running the banks.

[TimberWolf]

I thought the papers employed proof readers? Anyway mistakes like this are common and don't mean you aren't educated, I know I make them a lot and that they are hard to spot just after you've written something, or are thinking about something deeper. And I'm not dyslectic as far as I know. You'd have to have some kind of autism to spot all the silly errors made all the time or less significant things happening in daily life.

For instance people often miss the double word here:
The
cat sat
on the
the mat


Another one. Count the number of Fs.
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I thought the papers employed proof readers?

.

I think they fired them all ages ago to pay for dividends and management bonuses - according to an embittered former Journo pal of mine.

[TimberWolf]

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Teh smae alppeis to gmraamr no duobt.

[zara_backdog]

I thought the papers employed proof readers? Anyway mistakes like this are common and don't mean you aren't educated, I know I make them a lot and that they are hard to spot just after you've written something, or are thinking about something deeper. And I'm not dyslectic as far as I know. You'd have to have some kind of autism to spot all the silly errors made all the time or less significant things happening in daily life.

For instance people often miss the double word here:
The
cat sat
on the
the mat


Another one. Count the number of Fs.
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

Almost everyone guesses three. Why? It seems that the brain cannot correctly process the word "OF". The letter F usually makes the "f" sound, like in "fox". However, in the word "of", it makes a "v" sound. Somehow, your brain overlooks the word "of" as it scans for the sound of "f

I bet all of us who are dyslexic would have got this right as this is the sort of thing you check for. Me it is words like from and form I sometimes get wrong and spell check does not pick this up.