Category Archives: legal secretary

Grammar Giggle – A Title Is Just A Title

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This was a “breaking news” flash on my phone this week. The first one that came through was:

Gov Stanton

The “correction” appearing within moments was:

Mayor Stanton

As a bit of background, Greg Stanton is the Mayor of the City of Phoenix and Doug Ducey is the Governor of the State of Arizona–two very different people with two very different jobs. While Mayor Stanton may well be Governor Stanton one day, on the day the “breaking news” appeared, he was still Mayor Stanton. There are lots of facts that need to be checked in proofreading–not just spelling and punctuation. In this case, I’m most interested in who caught the mistake because the correction was made more quickly than most news story corrections are made.

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Grammar Giggle – We Got Tatoos!

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I saw this sign at a charity walk I participated in. While I hesitate to use it because (a) it was a charity thing and (b) a child could have prepared the sign since the charity was geared to children, I decided to use it anyway as a teaching tool–and TWO mistakes in the same sign cannot possibly get by without becoming a Grammar Giggle. Not only is “tatoo” misspelled (it should be “tattoo”), but “We got cute ones” should be “We have got cute ones” or “We‘ve got cute ones.” I’m sure it was probably an early morning not enough coffee thing, but it is incorrect and is a bad example–particularly when it is an event geared toward children.

Tatoo

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Grammar Giggle – One Celebrity, Eight Celebrities

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This was recently in my Facebook feed and caught my attention. Yes, the children belong to each celebrity, but they belong to eight different celebrities so should have been “8 Celebrities’ Children . . .” to talk about the children of eight celebrities. See the formula here.

IMG_2690

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Grammar Giggles – Sometimes They Do and Sometimes They Don’t

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This is an example of the fact that headlines (and document headings as well) also need to be proofread. They need to be checked not just for misspellings but also for whether or not they make sense, as in this example. A “homicide victim” would be dead because they were the victim of a homicide. The dictionary definition of “homicide” is “murder,” so I’m pretty sure that victim is not talking. The fact that homicide victims rarely talk to police is inaccurate and doesn’t make sense. I would venture a guess that homicide victims NEVER talk to police.

Homicide victims

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