Don't They Check These Things?

How Bizarre!

2011-07-09T04:08:00.002-05:00

I am a firm believer that names should be spelled correctly. Some quick research can save you from a lot of embarassment later on.

How unfortunate, then, that the name of Bizarre Creations should be misspelled not once, but twice in a recent Joystiq article. It's even more frustrating that the article begins with a screenshot including the correct spelling, as though author Jessica Conditt wasn't even aware of what she was posting.

The Internet is reporting that the lead designer on Bizzare Creations' Blur has created an independent game studio called Totem Games, but this is a lie.
and

Matt Cavanagh, a former Bizzare Creations employee, has created Totem Games Ltd., an independent game studio with a mission to help "make the world a happier place."

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/09/matt-cavanagh-forms-a-new-studio-didnt-have-anything-to-do-wit/

I'm guessing it's Paul and Ringo

2011-07-08T02:05:00.003-05:00

This one's just a simple matter of laziness on the part of the writer.

A recent Joystiq post boasts the headline "Full Driver: San Francisco car list has two Spiders, two Beatles and a Hornet."

Did you see it? Here it is again, with my usual markings on the errors:
Full Driver: San Francisco car list has two Spiders, two Beatles and a Hornet

It seems Mr. Schramm was trying to be clever and list the cars named for insects in his headline, but instead named the influential British band. It would have been a simple matter to look at the full list, posted in the article itself, to see the correct spelling.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/08/full-driver-san-francisco-car-list-has-two-spiders-two-beatles/

Two bees, or not two bees?

2011-07-02T05:24:00.003-05:00

While reading through Penny Arcade this morning, I came across a discussion on Double Fine's new game Trenched, which led to some interesting linguistic research.

The game offers the ability to customize your character, which Tycho says can result in
"[l]umbering Assault murderwalkers that emit doom, (comparatively) lithe Engineering chassis that deal the bulk of their damage with Heavy Turrets and cheap upgrades, or Standard cores that split the difference."

It's not often that you hear the word "chassis" used in general conversation, much less the plural form, which led me to question what the actual plural of the noun is. Is Tycho correct in his usage here? A quick trip to Dictionary.com gave me the surprising results.

"Chassis" is the correct spelling of both the singular and plural forms. In this aspect, the word falls into the same category as nouns like "moose" and "deer." "Chassis," however, has the unique distinction that, while spelled the same, the two forms are actually pronounced differently, probably due to the French influence. Dictionary.com gives the pronunciation for the singular as [chas'-ee, -is, shas'-ee] and the plural as [chas'-eez, shas'-].

If anyone out there is aware of other nouns like this, I'd love to hear about them!

Source: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/7/1/
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chassis

Dueling banjos - I mean Analogs

2011-07-01T12:10:00.003-05:00

Some quick points about this posting at Steve Napierski's "Dueling Analogs":

Honestly not sure that a downloadable content (DLC) model would even work for webcomics. Maybe if Alan Moore had released The Watchmen as a webcomic and the first eleven issues were free and the twelve you had to pay for…Maybe that would have worked.

Ignoring the fact that Steve omits the subject and verb in the first clause ("I'm honestly not sure..."), he goes on to use the cardinal form of the number twelve, rather than the ordinal version 'twelfth,' unintentionally implying that there are twelve more issues after the eleven free ones, instead of a single twelfth issue.

----------------------------------

That of course means that people even knows that your webcomic exists in the first place, but that’s a completely different story.

The word 'people' is, of course, the plural form of 'person,' which requires the plural verb 'know.'

----------------------------------

Some of it I’m not so sure about or just think are flat out a scam.

Another case of subject-verb mismatch. In this case, the subject is the pronoun 'some,' which oddly enough, indicates a plurality of objects, but is nonetheless singular. The correct verb here is 'is.'

----------------------------------

I’m a huge fan of the Katamari Damacy fan, but they DLC of Beautiful Katamari wasn’t really DLC, but already existing content that the developer had created, was actually on the physical disc you purchased andt that you had to pay for to unlock.

Welcome to the Department of Redundancy Department. He should omit the second 'fan' unless he actually means that he is a fan of people who are fans of Katamari Damacy. Oh, and we can't forget the typo!

-----------------------------------

Pretty much when the content you download in needed to make the game complete, or good even, and just should have been originally part of the game initially that’s when I have a problem with it.

Ignoring for a moment the horrible punctuation in the second clause, there is a simple misuse of words here. He mistakenly uses the preposition 'in' instead fo the verb 'is.' Spellcheck won't catch that!

-----------------------------------
One day we’ll be explaining to our grand kids that when we were their age we actually had to touch the physical media the game came on and they’ll response, “OMGSTFUIDBULOL”. Because by then everything will be digital and the spoken language will have degraded into a string of textese.

And, last but not least, we have the use of the noun 'response' instead of the related verb 'respond.'

Source: http://www.duelinganalogs.com/comic/2011/06/30/if-webcomics-had-dlc/

It's a Penny Arcade trifecta!

2011-06-24T03:59:00.002-05:00

I've read a few reviews of F3AR this morning, and so I was interested to see what the guys at Penny Arcade had to say about it. It looks like an interesting concept, and I am looking forward to my chance to check it out. While reading Tycho's thoughts, I came across 3 different grammatical errors I would like to address here. Now, Penny Arcade posts generally take a lighter, conversational tone, but that doesn't mean they can completely throw out the rules of grammar.

First of all, Tycho left out a word. While in some cases, this is acceptable for the conversational tone of their work, in this case, it appears to be completely unintentional and interrupts the flow of the piece:
Each you conquer a level, you are allowed to play that level as “Paxton Fettel,” a kind of ravening superghost core to the fiction. (The word missing here is "time," as in "Each time you...")

Not too much further in the article - in the very next sentence, actually - he again omits a word. Though it does fit with the conversational tone, it fails to fit the parallel structure of a list.
He can hoist enemies on a cord of spectral blood, possess human hosts, and a couple other tricks.
Each of the actions listed begins with a verb except the last one. Taken on its own, this is an incomplete statement ("He can a couple other tricks"), necessitating the use of the verb do.

And finally, Tycho is the victim of one of the more common mistakes: tense shifting. He explains a situation in the present tense, then inexplicably switches to past tense.
[Expletive] Run is a four player race against a Wave of Mutilation that ends the round if it touched any member of your team (I edited the expletive out of the title - this is a family-friendly blog, after all).
The correct statement would be to have both of these verbs in the present tense. This is the same trick used in literary criticism - historical context is in past tense ("Shakespeare wrote"), but the internal narrative is present tense ("Romeo goes").

Source: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/6/24/enervator/

The E3 Edition, part 1

2011-06-08T04:36:00.003-05:00

During E3, there are loads of announcements coming from all parts of the industry. This can be a lot to keep up with for any news outlet, and mistakes will happen. Case in point: the following was found in a follow-up article on the newly-announced title Fable: The Journey.

What about the Fable series' two other offensize components, shooting and melee?

Source:
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/08/fable-the-journey-preview-speak-and-spell/

Strike that, reverse it

2011-05-06T17:40:00.004-05:00

As a bit of a genealogy buff (I've done my share of family history research), I had to cringe a bit when reading an otherwise excellent report about the new Assassin's Creed game. Joystiq's own Editor-in-Chief, Chris Grant wrote:

"In Revelations, you'll play as both 12th century stabber Altair and his 16th century ancestor Ezio..."

Ignoring the missing comma for the appellative, there is a major confusion of terminology here.

For those unfamiliar with the genealogy terms, 'ancestor' refers to a relative from a previous generation, while 'descendant' is one of a future generation. Analogues to these would be 'forefathers' and 'progeny,' respectively.

So the correct statement would be that you play as Altair and his descendant, Ezio.

Source:
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/06/assassins-creed-revelations-details-from-gi-hookblades-bom/

It's a double!

2011-03-28T23:38:00.003-05:00

I had been waiting to read Major Spoilers' review of Amazing Spider-Man #656 until I had a chance to read the issue first, so this post goes back a few days. The very first sentence in this article is a bit incomplete: The Walking Massacre’s story isn’t a new one – way back in the Phineas Gage had a railroad spike blow through his head. It's pretty clear that we're missing the object of that preposition, probably something like "back in the day..." Soon after that, Mr. Schleicher misses an important possessive: Mayor J. Jonah Jameson, who recently lost his wife during Alistair Smythe recent rampage, is taking it upon himself to be the judge and jury in all matters concerning those who take a life. Friends of the series know that it was Alistair Smythe who killed Mrs. Jameson, making it "Alistair Smythe's recent rampage." Source: http://www.majorspoilers.com/review-the-amazing-spider-man-656

Where do I go from here?

2011-03-05T14:12:00.003-06:00

Since I started this blog, I had hoped that I would be able to somehow use it to generate revenue, either through pay-per-click ads, or by gaining enough interest and prestige to become a full-time editor. Neither of those have worked out for me so far. I understand, of course, that I need to work on producing content more regularly to reach either of those goals.

My question now, is: What content do you want to see here? I noticed while reviewing my blog traffic that a majority of my hits are coming from outside the U.S., places like Brazil, Switzerland, even Nepal. This got me to wondering about how and why these visitors are reading my site. Could it be that they're foreign-language speakers actually looking for tips on the intricacies and minutiae of English grammar?

So, once again, I'll open it up to you, my readers. What would you like to see more of? Less of? How did you find my blog? And how do you like what you've seen so far?

Multiple Infractions

2011-01-31T09:49:00.005-06:00

I like reading Penny Arcade. It generally has interesting discussions and fun comics. While reading one of their new posts, I couldn't help but notice a few glaring errors. While they probably have a large enough loyal reader base that doesn't care about things like grammar, I would hope they still take a few minutes to proofread the posts.

First infraction: failing to capitalize the first word of a sentence.
You think we’ve caved into to pressure from a vocal minority and you’re not entirely wrong. let me at least break down why we did it though.

Second infraction: failing to separate items in a list.
If jokes about violence,rape,aids,pedophilia,bestiality,drugs,cancer,homosexuality, and religion bother you then I recommend reading a different webcomic.

In addition to being a basic grammar mistake, this also affects the page appearance, as the browser views this list as a single word, creating unnecessary blank space at the end of a line, where at least a few of these items could fit. (See the following screenshot for reference.)

Third infraction: using sentence fragments.
We want PAX to be a place were everyone feels welcome and we’ve worked really hard to make that happen. From not allowing booth babes to making sure we have panels that represent all our attendees.

The fragment here is a complete thought, continuing that of the previous sentence and should be a subclause rather than a fragment: "... make that happen, from not allowing..."

Any simple word processor with a spell/grammar checker should catch these errors.

Source:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/1/28/dickwolves

Back to the Grind

2011-01-28T11:33:00.002-06:00

Every once in a while, I get a bit of an itch to check my traffic, and I've noticed that even though I haven't posted here in a while (I know I promised to in my last post), I'm still getting a fair number of visits. Obviously, I've done something right to keep getting noticed like that, so I'm going to keep trying to update here.

I've been doing some translations recently and it's gotten me to think about idioms - words or phrases that have a completely different literal meaning than what they're commonly used for. I started making a list, mostly from books/blogs I've been reading or podcasts I've been listening to. So, in no particular order, here are a few that've caught my attention:

"in my wheelhouse" - This may be a regional thing, but I'd never heard this one before, and I've really only heard it from one particular podcaster. The idea here is that something "in my wheelhouse" is something that I really enjoy, that fits my interests. This brings me to:

"up my alley" - Similar in meaning (if not identical) to the previous phrase, but I essentially grew up hearing this. Again, might be due to regional differences.

"sawbones" - This is a colloquial term used for a doctor, more specifically a surgeon.

Then there are various drug references, such as "doobie," "roach," and "weed."

As I came across these, I couldn't help wonder how I would translate these into German. I could go for the functional version, translating the meaning rather than the phrase (i.e. "surgeon" for "sawbones), but it feels a lot more formal.

I'll try and keep posting these as they come up. If you have any suggestions for the translations, or want to provide more idioms for discussion, please feel free to comment.

Back from hiatus

2010-09-24T22:43:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted here in quite a while, and I do apologize for that. I had some rather big life changes in the last few months - graduating, looking for a job, and moving being chief among them. Things have finally settled down, and I have a new laptop to work on, so hopefully I'll have lots more updates for you soon.

Again with the verbs!

2010-01-08T09:54:00.003-06:00

From a Kotaku article about the possibility of Infinity Ward bailing out on Modern Warfare 3:

This might because, if true, the future of the series has not yet been ironed out.

It seems someone forgot the verb again! Or it could be a failed attempt to write in slang, using "because" for the verb "be" with a common spoken contraction of "because." ("This might be, 'cause, if true...")

Source: http://kotaku.com/5443502/but-is-infinity-ward-doing-modern-warfare-3

Location, location, location!!

2010-01-06T12:12:00.003-06:00

From today's Rooster Teeth comic:

We got so many wonderful gifts to the office this holiday, that we where overwhelmed.

Source: http://roosterteeth.com/home.php
http://roosterteeth.com/comics/strip.php?id=1519

Note: The description doesn't show up on the actual comic post, so this is probably only available on the homepage for a limited time.

Again with the homophones!

2010-01-05T13:23:00.002-06:00

In an article in my local campus paper, the writer makes the fairly common mistake of using one homophone when the correct choice would be another. This is the root of the common "your/you're" and "its/it's" errors. In this case, the campus writer used a much more uncommon pair:

Deciding that my answer to the question is yes is a hurtle I have already jumped.

In this case, he mistook the verb form "hurtle" for the noun "hurdle," which in addition to being a different part of speech, also has a different meaning. (Though dictionary.com gives a noun usage for "hurtle," it also lists this as being archaic and referring to collisions.)

From dictionary.com, here are the most common meanings of the words:

hur⋅tle
–verb (used without object)
1. to rush violently; move with great speed: The car hurtled down the highway.
2. to move or go noisily or resoundingly, as with violent or rapid motion: The sound was deafening, as tons of snow hurtled down the mountain.
3. Archaic. to strike together or against something; collide.

hur⋅dle
–noun
1. a portable barrier over which contestants must leap in certain running races, usually a wooden frame with a hinged inner frame that swings down under impact to prevent injury to a runner who does not clear it.
2. hurdles, (used with a singular verb) a race in which contestants must leap over a number of such barriers placed at specific intervals around the track. Compare high hurdles, low hurdles.
3. any of various vertical barriers, as a hedge, low wall, or section of fence, over which horses must jump in certain types of turf races, as a steeplechase, but esp. an artificial barrier.
4. a difficult problem to be overcome; obstacle.
5. Chiefly British. a movable rectangular frame of interlaced twigs, crossed bars, or the like, as for a temporary fence.
6. a frame or sled on which criminals, esp. traitors, were formerly drawn to the place of execution.
–verb (used with object)
7. to leap over (a hurdle, barrier, fence, etc.), as in a race.
8. to master (a difficulty, problem, etc.); overcome.
9. to construct with hurdles; enclose with hurdles.
–verb (used without object)
10. to leap over a hurdle or other barrier.

Source: http://oudaily.com/news/2009/sep/09/column-can-someone-be-religious-and-still-practice/

Dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hurtle
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hurdle

They're really just making excuses, and bad ones, at that!

2010-01-05T12:43:00.003-06:00

In a follow-up to a post I wrote a while back, D3 Publisher has "explained" the typo in their name. Apparently it was supposed to be some kind of play on words, but even that explanation doesn't make sense.

The Kotaku response to this statement pretty much sums it up:
"Purlisher" is a pun on "Publisher" — not a very good one, and one that would have also been viewed as a misspelling. It has nothing to do with puppy dogs.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5440276/d3-publisher-spelling-mistake-explained

All in a "Daisies" work

2010-01-04T10:37:00.002-06:00

Drew from Back of the Cereal Box wrote a great article about names in the TV show "Pushing Daisies." As with any writing of this length, Drew's article does contain a few mistakes.

After discussing the doubling in names of characters, Drew goes on to say:
The episode “Pigeon” features a different sort of doubling Elsa and her daughter Elsita, both of whom are played by the same actress, the very appealing Jayma Mays, who’s now on Glee and whose own name features an internal duplication of vowel sounds.
A colon would be required here, between stating the fact that doubling occurs and naming the specific instance.

He goes on to discuss a commanding character named Simone:
In that sense, I’m betting that that her creators has titular dictator of the game Simon Says in mind when they dreamed her up.
This is a case of simple subject-verb agreement, as the plural subject "creators" demands a plural verb, in this case "have." More specifically, the tense of the verb also comes into question. This is a past event, so we would need a past tense "had."

Source: http://kidicarus222.blogspot.com/2009/09/naming-conventions-in-pushing-daisies.html

Way to represent!!!

2009-12-30T18:24:00.003-06:00

While browsing job listings on Monster.com, I came across this description of a company:

TWO Group, is a German-owned company with it's headquarters in Stuttgart German and Guangzhou China, and offices in UK, USA, Czech and Hong Kong.

This short statement probably has the highest error-to-word count I've seen in quite a while. Beginning with an errant comma between the subject and verb, it quickly moves into an it's/its error. Pausing the error-train only briefly, the listing misnames the country of origin (Germany), while at the same time omitting the comma between city and country, and finally naming a language (Czech) instead of a country (the Czech Republic)!

If this is how the company chooses to represent itself, I don't think I'd want to work there.

Source: http://jobview.monster.com/IT-Consultant-Job-Chicago-IL-US-85251165.aspx

Now, some of you might wonder what brought me to this listing in the first place. Well, wonder no more! It is simply this: Having just completed my M.A. in German Literature to go along with my B.A. in German and my B.S. in Computer Science, I now need to find gainful employment. I'd like to go into translating or IT work, or perhaps do paid proofreading/editing for some of you big blogs out there. If anyone knows of a position that could use my skills, please let me know!

Typos: Now with Real-World Consequences!!

2009-12-22T10:58:00.003-06:00

Here's a story from today's news about a plane failing to take off due to a typo!!

Apparently, the plane's first officer recorded the weight into the flight system as 262.9 tons, when in actual fact it was 362.9 ton.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5431941/typo-caused-airbus-plane-tail+strike-during-takeoff-in-australia

Twitter

2009-12-03T12:30:00.004-06:00

Twitter is an interesting creature. By its micro-blogging and easy following nature, it gets used a lot for things like liveblogs, reporting on news the moment it happens. As such it is easy to make typos and other small mistakes in an effort to get the ideas across quickly.

This particular post from Extra Life was actually pretty funny in its errors:
The World of Warcraft Programming guild vol 2 is up! My art on the cover. http://tinyurl.com/yhxkbgr

Specifically, I like how he mis-typed the word "guide" and it became a term used in the game itself.

Source: http://twitter.com/extralife/status/6308567342

Ah, the holidays!

2009-11-13T09:21:00.004-06:00

Thanksgiving is soon upon us, and with it, the most beautiful day of the (shopping) year: Black Friday. Over the last few weeks, information has trickled out about retailers' various offerings. This comes from the listing of Best Buy's ad, just released on Black-Friday.net:

	Left 4 Dead 2 (PS3)	$34.99 *
	Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360)	$34.99 *

This caught my eye, as I was unaware there was a PS3 version of Left 4 Dead 2. The original released only on Xbox 360 and PC. Developer Valve has a history of not making games for PS3. So color me curious about this listing.

Going to the official website confirmed my suspicion: L4D2 is not releasing on PS3. Additionally, looking at the actual ad scan shows this:

While the image is low quality due to the original scan, it clearly says, "Only available on XBOX 360." Somebody just forgot to do their homework.

Also of note in the listing:

	Call of Juarex (PS3)	$19.99
	Call of Juarez (Xbox 360)	$19.99

and

I Know Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (DVD)

$3.99

D'OH!

Source: http://www.black-friday.net/bf/bestbuy-black-friday.html

2009-11-10T19:43:00.003-06:00

Here's one from the guys at Rooster Teeth. Just goes to show, typos can happen anywhere, even in cartoons.

"You mean, business tems."

Source: http://roosterteeth.com/comics/strip.php?id=852

2009-11-10T19:31:00.003-06:00

I enjoy reading Penny Arcade. Gabe and Tycho simply have a way with words. They can take mundane things and make them seem magical. Nevertheless, they are not immune to the problems of written communication.

Don't the worry about the energies! The energies are fine.

Source: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/9/4/reality-problem/

2009-11-10T19:21:00.004-06:00

This piece from Back of the Cereal Box, while comical, does bring home the concept of how profound a change simple punctuation can make. From the post:

My question was quickly answered by her response, “Who you are? Why you come here?”

Interestingly, the article itself contains punctuation errors:
Upon speaking with various members of the proofing department at length about the question mark erroneously affixed to the end of the film’s title on various posters, press packets, TV commercials, certain versions of the trailer, and all incarnations of the various Where the Wild Things Are video games. I eventually arrived at Ms. Anoldi’s office — which exists in a room that I previously thought was only used to store old furniture — and asked her if she was, in fact, the person who inserted this punctuation mark.

Did you see it? That fragment right there? Instead of a period, Drew obviously intended to continue the thought of the sentence, necessitating a comma.

Also of note, a spelling error:
She eventually chased me away by repeatedly rapping me on the head with a wooden spoon that she had been using to stir a pot of what appeared to be marina sauce.

Has anyone out there ever heard of this alleged "marina" sauce?

Source: http://kidicarus222.blogspot.com/2009/09/but-truly-where-are-these-wild-things.html

2009-11-10T19:13:00.004-06:00

Being Hollywood, there just has to be some added element of complication to the sometimes inscrutable world of relationships, and boy, do those screenwriter love disorders.

Now, I know there are all sorts of disorders out there, but what are"screenwriter love disorders?"

Source: http://oudaily.com/news/2009/aug/28/movie-reviews/