Poor Business Approach

[michael walsh]

A personal interest I know but why are business owners so sloppy about their approach; especially in trying times when every order is vital?

In a local newspaper two advertisements have been published. Small adverts in which the proprietor sets out the service he offers. One is an interior designer, the other financial services. Add two prominent estate agencies but they’re typical of many others.

Their adverts / websites are so amateurishly written; replete with spelling mistakes, poor grammar and sentence structure, one would think an eight-year old child had written them.

The proprietors have spent considerable sums of money to attract clients yet, to save a few euros, won’t have their copy licked into shape: A classic example of spoiling a ship for a ha’porth of tar. Would anyone place a £100,000 order with a company that can’t spell the simplest words? Crazy!

[Gill_Bell]

I agree - it always puts me off when no care has been taken over spelling etc - it is the customer's first impression of the business and should be the best possible

[Rob1305]

Agreed, my pet hate is Estate Agents who cannot even spell Accommodation

Just incredible.

[videokeith]

Me too, except that I was brought up, partly in the USA and so always have problems between some of the spelling and their use or the lack of it for 'U' and the substitution for Z and S usually catches me out too.

But little excuse really. Although it's very hard to proof read what one has written oneself, the errors are glaring when looking at others' work.

Case in point was something I saw today penned by the EDITOR of a local glossy magazine from last month.

They clapped themselves on their backs because of the "positive feed back is grown on this magazine..."

Now; remember that this is the EDITOR - the Editor's letter is the first thing one sees in opening the magazine and there, within the second sentence two mistakes hit you or at least did me, or should that be I!

Second sentence and not only should 'feed back' be one word and not two ie: 'feedback' but then we also have

"is grown on this magazine..."

which I really had to think about!

Maybe

"positive feed back has grown as this magazine ..."

maybe not!

Further down we have

", and keep you up to date on the Spanish Culture"

With proof reading hat on, the Editor places a comma (,) before almost every 'and' which is very poor usage and probably something I was taught when I was about seven, followed by

'the Spanish Culture'

with the extra 'the' as if Spanish Culture was a definitive thing, that existed as a form, such as The Spanish Cultural Department, but not 'the Spanish Culture'.

And this is the 'Editor'. The person responsible for reading the magazine copy, looking for those little mistakes, and correcting them with their red pen - or at least that was how it used to be done. Possibly the Editor is beyond reproach and nobody would dear to read and correct her work! Shame.

I could go on but why bother. It would just fall on deaf ears but both MIke and I are available for proof reading duties.

Just IMHO.

Keith

[michael walsh]

Eureka! There is the problem. Editors are incapable of recognising the difference between good and bad copy. I say this tongue in cheek but seriously they don't.

As I have already mentioned, I owed a friend a favour. In return I offered to tidy up the very poor structure; correct spelling and grammatical mistakes, in their company's website.

He was horrified at the thought: "Don't tell ********** that. She wrote it and thinks it is perfect. She reads books like ********* ".

See what I mean? How do you sell a Ferrari to someone who thinks their East German Brabant is every bit as good; the Italian car's just flash?

[videokeith]

And Mike, here lies the difference between a proof reader and a copy editor:

the East German car would be a Trabant, (LOL) which by the way they are relaunching a clean, eco-friendly, electric, possibly hybrid, version of in 2010.

OK, I have an advantage here in that I used to be a motoring journalist and photographer and have even been driven in one of these smelly, cardboard-paper mache machines! Cheep but not a joy to drive.

I'd still prefer the Ferrari even if it's painted red and not so green!

For those quiz masters out there, a Brabant is a draft horse popular with the American Belgian's (or should that be Belgian American's!) and a place in Holland, from memory. Go on, goggle it!

Where were we? Ah yes; Editors!

OK: I couldn't resist going and having a look at the web site of a local magazine. And "surprise, surprise", as 'our' Cilla used to say:

'Pacha Torrevieja was born in August 1985 and has become the most famous club (a famous club, the most famous club in Spain - needs an explanation!).

Pacha is a combination of life philosophy and aesthetic of Ibiza with ultimate image and sound which you can find your musical style in four rooms.
(it's just wrong - so many mistakes that this needs to be rewritten from scratch)

Spectacular facilities , 2500m2 distributed over 2 floors allow around 4500 people to enjoy there shows.'

and so, intrigued, I went to the article, as this is what their front page of their of web site gambit offered and enticed me to do so: I just knew that a schmorgesborg of typos and mistakes would affront me

'Pacha Torrevieja invited ****** along to their 24th birthday party. We took along our “Face of ******* “winner **** and together with crowed of people we enjoyed there hospitality.
The latest technology, lighting, featured guest DJ’s, fire eaters and dancers, and a host of freebies have clearly made a fantastic night, a night which everyone will remember.'

OK, it's your turn to spot the deliberate mistake?
How many did you count?
It's a little like a Children's TV program really - 'Dora the Explorer' comes to mind!




Wait for it -






NOW






'Pacha Torrevieja invited ***** along to their 24th birthday party.

We took along our “Face of ******* “winner ** and together with crowed of people we enjoyed there hospitality.

(oh dear - two more mistakes in the one sentence! Did you spot them? )



The latest technology, lighting, featured guest DJ’s, fire eaters and ('and' not required) dancers, and a host of freebies have clearly made a fantastic night, a night which everyone will remember.'

'have clearly' - I'm unsure if this should be taken out, made into a past tense, or just re-worked! Just awful use of English!

and on we go. Yes, an exercise in futility but one to highlight how easy it is to make mistakes in print and then forever have to pay the consequences. We've all been guilty of it, and even a few hours after writing a piece I can find myself cringing at my own Typos, but there really is not an excuse for a magazine or a newspaper not to have a professional proof reader or copy editor do the job properly in the first place.

WIIFT
Although the magazine or newspaper is free, advertisers pay good money to be seen in and associated with publications. This magazine is so poorly written that I rarely pick up a copy as it's both glossy in nature and gloss by it's standards. Thus, more than one reader is lost to the magazine. One more that shall not see the adverts that clients have paid for, which funds the printing, the editors, the journalists, the photographers, etc, etc.

If the quality is not there, one's credibility goes and with it, the guilty by association syndrome.

Once again, all comments are just IMHO but, there is no denying that in the case of this particular magazine, they can really only improve; although a year or more into production, maybe the change is too late to happen!

BTW, I've no axe to grind nor reason to single out this particular publication. I just happened to have one of their old magazines sitting beside me. I can find mistakes in almost every publication on the costa. Such is life


Keith