Spelling and Grammar?

Question

Almost every day I see misspelled words and/or grammatical errors in advertising. Why is this such a problem for people nowadays? Shouldn't advertising departments have more stringent hiring policies?

Answer 1

Public schools have not been teaching the "three R's" properly for many years now, and we're beginning to see the fruit of this neglect. If they would spend less time on social engineering and indoctrination, and more time on the basics of the English language, maybe we'd begin to see a reversal of this trend. And don't even get me started on the phony "science" of evolution that they spend so much time drumming into the heads of the poor, unsuspecting captive student body. We need to teach our students critical thinking skills, backed by a strong emphasis on the basic disciplines.

Answer 2

The problem is that companies are more focused on pumping out the ads, that they overlook many of the errors in spelling and grammar. Yes, the people that are writing these things down are at fault in part, but the ones who are really to blame for an error slipping through the cracks is the editor. If they did their job correctly and actually read what they were seeing rather than running spell check, there would be hardly any errors in what we read. Instead, they are becoming too dependent on computers to realize that some words that are misspelled are actual words by definition, but are not the word that we meant to use. Find a publication with the least amount of errors possible, and I guarantee you'll find an editor that actually edits.

Answer 3

It's not a matter of hiring policies. It's a matter of advertising agencies, and print media not wanting to pay salaries to proof readers. They rely too heavily on computer programs which are only as good as those who program them.

The most flagrant error I see today in print is the miss use of the word "an."
For some reason these programs have been developed in European countries where the usage of "an" is different than American English.
Examples of this all too common error are: "An Hospital' &
"An herring"

This error in American English usage is correct if you use the French grammatical rule.

Answer 4

It's understandable that people make mistakes. In my journalism class about 3 years ago we studied the newspapers every day and there were 4 to 5 mistakes in each issue. It's going to be a problem forever unless there is some way to extinguish all human participation in advertising, because humans make mistakes and always will. There is no perfect human being. Although I do agree that we should be more careful with this. There is also a steady growth in ineducation beause kids today don't want to learn. There has to be a way to change this..


By the way, I'm drunk and I just typed that. So people that make mistakes may be drunk as they are working.. Who knows?

Answer 5

You can't avoid the inevitable mystery of human error. There is always a chance that an error can occur, no matter how many times it is edited.

Answer 6

Yah i know! It bums me off. Like the other day whn i went to visit the dentist. Outside his office there ws the sign "Pick your tocken here". Tocken? Duh...helloooo isnt it supposed to be Token? And tht too outside a doctors office? Man, how much ignorant can ppl be?

Answer 7

I'm wondering if this is just a brilliant marketing ploy? It certainly grabs your attention when you see a typo on an ad and it makes you remember the product.

Then again, perhaps the editors just had a bad day. :)

Answer 8

I saw Porsche misspelled Porche on a national commercial the other day.

Answer 9

For the guy up there that is complaining about the public schools...I went to public schools and was fortunate enough to have excellent teachers. Don't bash all public schools.

Answer 10

i guess everyone make mistakes. or maybe they know the error but couldn't be bothered to change.(due to cost or some other stuffs)