Are grammar and spelling lost arts?

[sgrizzle]

I'm not the best at either, but I tend to expect better from retailers, advertisers and large companies in which tens, if not hundreds, of people see a work before it is made available to the public.

This weekend while admiring a hat embroidered "OklahomaStateE" I wondered how this could happen. With Danny Beck he promised on billboards that "I want to be you're president." On the radio I hear of an organization that will help you read 10 books in the time it would normally take to read one. They advertise this as both 10x faster and 1000% faster. Apparently speed reading doesn't help you know that 1000% plus 100% = 1100% or 11 books.  Another radio advert says "why buy (product x) from someone who obviously doesn't use it themselves," they analogize it with "that's like getting a haircut from a  mechanic." Are they saying all mechanics need haircuts? Otherwise the analogy makes no sense.

Just a pet peeve. My other is that the Tulsa World pays no attention to where the paper folds when they do the layout. Otherwise friday's world wouldn't have shown a 106 yr old woman accompanied by headline "same sex couple granted divorce."

[Kiah]

Yes . . . them is.

[BKDotCom]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

advertisers and large companies in which tens, if not hundreds, of people see a work before it is made available to the public.

I think you'd be surprised at how few people are behind the creating of such materials.  And in my personal experience the design types that put them together are just a wee bit artsy-fartsy / "absent minded".   And the print shops seem to have some policy of not confirming any blatant errors they might see.  The client is always right?  Charge them twice?

Getting a haircut from a mechanic.  They're saying that a mechanic probably doesn't give a very good haircut.   When you need a haircut, do you go to a barber/hair-stylist, or a mechanic?  
The analagy fits, but the commercial was a bit dumb.  It has nothing to do with the state of any mechanic's hair.

[RecycleMichael]

Reading comprehension...

Grandma says Anne Spelling is lost? Who's Art?

[brunoflipper]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I'm not the best at either, but I tend to expect better from retailers, advertisers and large companies in which tens, if not hundreds, of people see a work before it is made available to the public.

This weekend while admiring a hat embroidered "OklahomaStateE" I wondered how this could happen. With Danny Beck he promised on billboards that "I want to be you're president." On the radio I hear of an organization that will help you read 10 books in the time it would normally take to read one. They advertise this as both 10x faster and 1000% faster. Apparently speed reading doesn't help you know that 1000% plus 100% = 1100% or 11 books.  Another radio advert says "why buy (product x) from someone who obviously doesn't use it themselves," they analogize it with "that's like getting a haircut from a  mechanic." Are they saying all mechanics need haircuts? Otherwise the analogy makes no sense.

Just a pet peeve. My other is that the Tulsa World pays no attention to where the paper folds when they do the layout. Otherwise friday's world wouldn't have shown a 106 yr old woman accompanied by headline "same sex couple granted divorce."

unpossible...

[jdb]

Art were that dude that singed some song about an turnpike, than his hair felled out.

One can't not poof there own righting, jdb

[snopes]

Alot of this has to do with the text messaging generation. U R Here... I work in the marketing profession and you see it all of the time. And these people who think they are all the rage when it comes to art for the most part ignorant of what it takes to put together something truly artistic, even on a sterile marketing level.

They like to think they are the artistic type, but in truth real art takes alot of work and appreciation of many things other than slick paper brochures with beautiful people on the cover using their cell phones in a Starbucks on the upper East side of Manhattan.

Attention to detail is truly a lost art and they think grammar is below them because it's not relevant to the masses in which their communication is intended. Don't get me started (shiver)...

[AngieB]

quote:Originally posted by BKDotCom

I think you'd be surprised at how few people are behind the creating of such materials.  And in my personal experience the design types that put them together are just a wee bit artsy-fartsy / "absent minded".   And the print shops seem to have some policy of not confirming any blatant errors they might see.  The client is always right?  Charge them twice?

Being in a creative profession does not automatically mean that you are are artsy-fartsy or "absent minded". There are designers out there (such as myself) that can spell, do use proper grammar and pay attention to detail.

As for the print shops, that's not their job. That is why they provide proofs on which you must sign off. They don't read your materials. As far as they are concerned, if the color is right and the job is trimmed and folded correctly, they're done.

I think the instances where you find horrible grammar and blatant errors, are those times when a professional designer and/or advertising agency isn't involved. Often it is when the person selling the advertising says "Hey, buy this space and we'll design it for you." And in those cases, you get what you pay for.

OK, off my soapbox now.  [] Haha.

[Hometown]

It has happened to forms as well – federal and every other kind of form.  Forms are riddled with mistakes now.  I remember when forms were flawless.

It has something to do with technology being so thoroughly distributed and just about everyone having their hand in the pot or the document.  It doesn't help with communication being so instantaneous and half baked.  Windows has degraded everything.  But work product has gone to hell across the board so maybe there is a loss of work ethic going on too.  I dropped a hyphen in this paragraph and don't even care.

Add to that the fact that an error in Microsoft Word's grammar program is multiplied a billion times and has the power to ultimately change our language.  

But don't worry; today's sloppy English is tomorrow's text book English.

[aoxamaxoa]

No, not lost art....but the internet nomenclature allows for play on words....I wish I'd had spell check and word in college.

[TheTed]

While it's not truly an error, those Pike Pass signs along the turnpikes bother me.

The number is listed as 1-800-Pike Pas. I'm not sure why they can't just add the second 'S.' It wouldn't hurt anything, and then it wouldn't look like a letter fell off the sign.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by TheTed

While it's not truly an error, those Pike Pass signs along the turnpikes bother me.

The number is listed as 1-800-Pike Pas. I'm not sure why they can't just add the second 'S.' It wouldn't hurt anything, and then it wouldn't look like a letter fell off the sign.

A similar argument can be made for "1-800-2-SELL-HOMES" which is really "1-800-2-SELL-HO"

[AngieB]

How about the signs at the Turnpike gates that say "Failure to pay toll strictly enforced."

Uhmmmm.....okaaaaay.

[jdb]

Yeah, but it's the wrong time of year to be selling Ho's.

Crossing the border back into the States this summer, I became a "detainee" (which in my case equates to being treated poorly for hours) and thusly, I set out to become the biggest pest I could be.

On the wall was a letter from Congress with three mis-spelled words.

I had so much fun with that that I hated to leave.
One Agent couldn't keep a straight face but everyone else quickly hated my guts.
Finally, they had had enough and I was escorted out with a hand on my back.

"...and just what exactly does 'Admistering' mean?". - jdb

[papaspot]