Doesn't anyone use proofreaders anymore?
 

Headline on Yahoo home page

"Trump sews new conflict."

Who knew, he is one of us. I think they meant "sows" however. They should be embarrassed.

:D ​the old auto correct strikes again and no one bothered to re-read it before printing.

yep, you gotta love idiots! sorry, Yes, you have to love idiots!

ptquilts, every time I read the newspaper I feel like taking a red felt pen and circling all the grammar errors and typos.... nice to know I'm not the only one. :D and I figured out how to shut off the auto correct on my ipad, it was just too annoying. Sometimes when I type I make a mistake and I'm okay with that; but for the machine to be telling me what I must be trying to say was a little too much.

Funny, I doubt if he even know how to thread a sewing machine.

I ordered business cards. My last name only has 4 letters. I sent the cards back twice; I proofread twice. I know how to spell my last name. They got upset because I wouldn't accept an "s" at the end of my name. Went to another place and got a better deal and no hassle.
I too half to laugh when the local newspaper holds spelling bees and send the kids to nationals. I sent a letter to the paper and told them they really needed to have these kids proofread the newspaper. Obviously, their employees never were in a spelling bee or even had an inclination what it was. the least they could do was use autocorrect.

LOL! "Half to laugh"? Or "have" to laugh?

Sure he does...he just yells at it and the machine threads itself. :)

OR

is that Chuck Norris who does that? :)

I prefer typos to bad formatting. I doubt no one under 30 knows how to indent or why or when.

One of the grammatical errors that drives me crazy is the misuse of "brought". Ex: I brought my sewing machine to the shop. It should be "I took my machine to the shop." I, too, spot all the errors in the paper; even the large type headlines are not exempt. I did teach language arts for a hundred years and do know the rules!!!

I think they rely too much on spell checkers without taking into account that correct spelling does not always equal correct grammar or lexical choice. I've seen a few good ones as well. Although sometimes it can be because the data import person has misheard the boss's dictation. One which I saw in a high - end catalogue was the phrase, "cups and sauces".

What really gets me and my Daughter is misspelled words on outdoor signs. They really stand out.

The typos in our paper drive me crazy as an English teacher for more years than I care to remember. Part of the problem is that the writers depend on auto -correct rather than looking up words. Homonyms seem to give writers the worst time, and it is in AP articles as well as in our local papers. Perhaps they need to read more!

Another pet peeve of mine is the misuse of certain phrases: case in point: If I would have known, etc., rather than had I known. Oh, well, I guess it's a losing battle.

Grammar
 

I am so happy to see that I am not the only one bothered by incorrect spelling or misuse of words. My pet peeve is "your" in place of "you're" or the bothersome "they're, their, there". Don't they teach this in school anymore? Our newspaper is notorious for using incorrect grammar and incorrect spelling. My husband says he is going to apply for a job as proofreader for our local paper. They could not afford him, I'm sure! ;-))

My pet peeve is the use of the apostrophe. "It's" means "it is". It doesn't mean anything else. There is no apostrophe in "its" when used in the possessive case.

I'm really tired of the overuse of the words: literally,virtually and sense. The other one is the mispronunciation of the planet Uranus.

Misuse of pronouns drives me crazy. Example: The gift was for Joe and I. The simple test is to take out the other person. You wouldn't say the gift was for I.

Another pet peeve is the use of an apostrophe for a plural. Banana's = something belongs to the banana. Bananas = more than one banana.

Oh, me, too, quiltsRfun! I forgot about that one.

Love this thread! But are we preaching to the choir? The one we see here is boarder for border. One person posted that she should get all those boarders to help her with her borders. Did she get it? Doubt it.
I don't think the teachers even know this stuff anymore.
My pet peeve is the I or me thing. quiltsRfun has the right explanation. It is used incorrectly by a lot of paper editors.
I always read what I have written before I click on "Post", but sometimes things sneak through anyhow. (not anyways, LOL)

I grew up when spelling was taught in school as well as grammar, word tense, diction, penmanship, etc. Whatever happened to it? Spelling and grammar mistakes in newspapers, magazines as well as books or other printed media just blow me away. In this day and age of computers, finding the correct spelling or word usage is extremely easy to find!

I worry that with all of the focus on the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) subjects that liberal arts will be ignored and forgotten. I was an English major in college, and managed to support myself and my family with no trouble. I worry that that may not be possible for today's kids. I think that we will all lead poorer lives if only people with STEM backgrounds can hold well paying jobs.

I agree with all the examples given. Shall we add "who" and "whom" to our list?

Many ebooks seem to be full of poor grammar and spelling. They drive me crazy when I am reading the story.

I read a blog each evening and it is so full of errors I want to email her and tell her to proofread. But she is so sweet, I can't bear to do it. One word that bothers me is the use of the word "lots". My English teacher told us that it meant a plot of land.

I also tend to be grammar police. I spot all the errors, both spelling and grammatical, here on the board. I decided to ignore them since not everyone had teachers as critical as mine. When I was working as a secretary for the government my wages were half as much as my counterparts were paid in D.C. It really irritated me to read letters from congressmen that were full of errors, sometimes to the point that they made no sense. I thought those secretaries and typists were paid way too much to send out letters that made their bosses look so stupid. As I got older I realized that neither intelligence nor education were prerequisites for being voted into office!

I looked up the definition of 'brought' because I use the word as it is used in your example sentence. Per the definition, 'brought' is used correctly in the example sentence.

One of the definitions of brought: to carry, convey, or take (something or someone) to a designated place or person

However, there were 8 other definitions on the site I used to look it up.:shock:

There, their and there...

I don't think language arts is going out of style. In the STEM fields, you have to be able to write your work/ideas in a manner that others can easily understand.

Never thought about the word 'lots' like that. Looked it up - as an adverb, lots means: a great deal. There are several not plot definitions for 'lots', too.

English is so confusing!

Their bosses wrote them. I think they might be the real problem.

Cathy, did you mean "there, their and they're"?

Do they still teach diagramming of sentences in school? I still diagram in my head. I had a teacher who used to make it into a game - girls vs. boys. Guess that wouldn't fly nowadays.

It has become so commonplace for people to spell check, but they do not check grammar. Therefore, the system the person is using may not catch the wrong word, because it is the "wright" word (spelled correctly, wrong usage) and since the system didn't flag it, the person's brain (if they are proofreading it) accepts it as the right word.

We have gotten lazy in teaching proper grammar and word usage. Sometimes, the wrong word will slip through, when texting a message or writing anything on a computer, because of spell check apps that are not grammar apps and a person hitting send without really reading what they typed.

I've often wondered the same thing. It's one of those things you wonder if you'll ever use when you're young but realize how important it is when you're older.

I still have trouble with who and whom. Got bring and take down pretty well, although I don't think about it much.

"Should I take the car in to the mechanic's?"

"Yes, he said 'Bring it in today.'"

My youngest son has five (5) Masters Degrees and he can't spell (as my mother would have said) sh** without adding 2 t's. lol

Well one of my pet peeves is the overuse of the words amazing and awesome. I think there is lack of vocabulary. Just throwing in my two cents.

Oh, I so agree with you. When I read the newspaper, the church bulletin, meeting minutes, etc., I keep wondering who, if anyone, proofread it. It bugs me, especially when a baseball announcer says "The score is tied 0 to 0." If it's 0 to 0, there is no score.

advice, advise
me, myself, I
border, boarder

I suppose we all have our pet peeves. I hate seeing people use 'loose' when they mean 'lose'. Someone already mentioned the boarder vs border. I have a friend who constantly uses 'mute' when she really means 'moot'. I really have to bite my tongue not to correct her. The one that really drives me nuts, though, are emails that read along the lines of "How r u?" I understand text messages were once charged differently, but I think most have unlimited text and my phone provides auto-fill. I always feel like just deleting those messages with no response.

After saying all that, I recognize that I'm not the world's leading expert on spelling or grammar but it seems to me that some people don't even try. :(