mistake #48

It's probably not a good sign when you spell a word wrong in the headline.

Full text: More on Andrews, and femeninity in sports

mistake #47

In elementary school, I learned that the dollar sign ($) meant dollars. Therefore, one could reason that writing "$50 dollars" is redundant, right?

Full text: Stern extends Bulls-Celtics series to best-of-11

mistake #46

This story from CollegeCandy.com made a few AP Style errors. First, "all right" is ALWAYS two words, never one. Second, both letters must be capitalized in the word "OK."

Full text: (Earth Friendly) Things That Make Me Go "Ew"

mistake #45

The misspelling of the word "capische" in this DrakeMag Online blog wouldn't have been so obvious if it hadn't been tacked on to the end of a paragraph, just hanging there in its misery. Webster could have solved this problem.

Full text: Outside of Mario, One-ups Suck

mistake #44

Oops. Most readers would know that this incorrect spelling was referring to designer Christian Louboutin, but the misspelling looks unprofessional from a magazine that knows fashion.

Full text: The Best Ways to Keep Track of Your Money

mistake #43

An extra comma after "madness" distracts readers away from the point of the sentence in this MarieClaire.com article. Someone should have looked over her story before she posted it..

Full text: Easy Green: Save Paper, Stop Phone Book Deliveries

mistake #42

In this article from my local newspaper, the facts don't match up. Why would this woman be a kindergarten student at a high school? I believe the writer meant to say, "She was a kindergarten student at Rosemount Elementary School."

Full text: Berenz is the choice for superintendent

mistake #41

I don't know if this was just a formatting thing, but this MarieClaire.com story seemed to use dashes and hyphens interchangeably, which I know is incorrect. There should be dashes in between "ex" and "now's," and later in between "get" and "meet" -- in both cases, two separate ideas that need more separation than just a hyphen provides.

Full text: 6 Post-Breakup Remedies

not-a-mistake #40

There was no mistake in this piece, just beautiful writing. (Ironic, in a sentence about how writing doesn't have to be beautiful.) This section popped out at me - I don't often get to see writing like this on the Web. Well done, Marie Claire.

Full text: 6 Post-Breakup Remedies

mistake #39

This MarieClaire.com story is just missing a comma, but the punctuation error makes it difficult to understand the writer's meaning. There should be a comma after "talks," and I'd like to see one after "behaves" too - but that's just my preference:

"I think many women feel like they know Michelle Obama because she's very real, in the way she talks, the way she behaves, and, yes, in the way she dresses."

Full text: 11 Ways to Get Michelle Obama's Style

mistake #38

This Twitter page from Drake's newest male a capella group calls The Breakdown "Drake University's premiere" group - but since it's an adjective, "premier" should be used.

Twitter page: The Breakdown

mistake #37

Since we're in the United States, let's spell "canceled" with one L, not two. Thanks.

Full text: Joel Stein Ranks the TIME 100

mistake #36

I know teenagers like to make up their own lingo, but do their publications have to do the same? On the cover of the May 2009 issue of Seventeen: "Glowy?" How about "glowing?"

mistake #35

Spelling error: "Horrbile" should be "Horrible." In other news, what a weird headline.

Full text: The Horrbile Truth: Lady Terrapins Eat Kids

mistake #34

Another "perspective/prospective" mistake, this time from a comment on Think's website.

Full text: For Richer Or For Poorer

mistake #33

"Coe-Rec"? Should be "Co-Rec," as in co-recreational. Duh.

mistake #32

A display from Nobbies, a West Des Moines party store. Last time I checked, "Transformers" was one word. (I'll let the "Teenage Mutant Turtles" reference slide, but just this once.)

mistake #31

Wow, three "theres" in a sentence and only one of them is correct. It should read: "...when they're gone, they're gone." A little punctuation in that sentence would be nice too.

Side note: This is from the Stallseat Journal, a weekly publication from Drake's Residence Hall Association (RHA) that goes inside bathroom stalls. I know people read it on the toilet, but still, someone could look over it before it goes on hundreds of stall doors.

mistake #30

I'm not sure if "Supreme Court" should be capitalized in this story from the Register, but it just seemed strange to me that it wasn't. AP style says that in the case of state supreme courts, it should be capitalized when it appears without the state name when the context makes it unnecessary. I'm not sure if using the phrase "supreme court decision" makes capitalization unnecessary.

Full text: New marriage forms are done: Party A and Party B

mistake #29

While participating in Drake's Relay for Life event last weekend, I noticed this poster created by the event staff. Simple grammatical and spelling errors: "Womens" -> "Women's," "accross" -> "across."

mistake #28 - Unless you're talking about the food..

I hate to be THAT person again, but one of my classmates used the wrong homonym for this phrase. It should instead be "a bad rap."

mistake #27 - A Provocative Essay

I don't think this violates any grammar rules, but it's just unclear - and therefore very funny. This FML user wrote, "Nude pictures of me and my paper due tomorrow are on the laptop." One question: was the paper nude too?

mistake #26 - If only love could keep it alive..

From Gawker: Employees waited for Hearst, not "Hearts," to make its decision. Just a simple typo, but in journalism, I'd say it's not okay to mess that up.

Full text: 'We Designated a Dog as Employee of the Month'

mistake #25 - this shirt "make's" me want to hurt myself

I work at an Old Navy store back home. While I was folding a table of graphic tees over break, I came across this little gem in the boys' section. For some reason, the designer chose to make "get's" possessive instead of leaving it as "gets." As my mom tells her students, if you don't know if you should use an apostrophe or not, leave it out, and it will probably be right.

This is the third or fourth shirt I've found at Old Navy with incorrect grammar, and ironically, most of the grammar mishaps end up on children's clothing. Last summer, we had a onesie for infants that had a military design and featured the word "sargent," an incorrect spelling of "sergeant." Thanks, Old Navy, for teaching incorrect grammar to our nation's youth.

Direct link: Boys Snack Graphic Tees

mistake #24

Not a very good scan, but the correction's in the caption under the photo. Ben Cooper is listed as "vice president of student life-elect," but he should be listed as "vice president-elect of student life." Because "vice president" is the actual title and "student life" just clarifies the position, the "elect" should fall after the position title itself.

mistake #23

I found this little nugget of grammatical incorrectness in my e-mail inbox. Aside from the terrible all-caps aspect of the message, the offender assigned an apostrophe to the wrong word.

This should say, "Bring your friends and your friends' friends," the friends of your friends.

mistake #22

I found this little gem while looking through the Des Moines Register archives in search of an article for another class. The district's fund balance is its rainy day fund. "Its" is already possessive - "it's" is just a contraction.

mistake #21

We all love Twitter - but it seems that one Midwest Living writer had some trouble with possession. Ours is already possessive and doesn't need an apostrophe. You would never write "your's," would you?

Link to page: Midwest Living on Twitter

mistake #20

From the Campus Calendar on blueView - "Perspective" should be "Prospective." "Perspective" just doesn't make sense.

mistake #19

Last time I checked, Facebook had more than one user. User's should be users' - plural possessive.

mistake #18

In a story that ran in Monday's issue of The Times-Delphic, the writer interviewed Eric Gudmundson, a member of the group that oversees PMACs and plans Welcome Weekend activities. However, his last name was spelled incorrectly every time it was used, with the exception of his introduction in the story. Maybe the writer had a sticky "d" key..

Full text: PMACs play important role in first-year transition to college

mistake #17

Last night, as I was watching the Oscars, I was caught up by a grammatically awkward moment during Reese Witherspoon's presentation of the award for Best Achievement in Directing, won by "Slumdog Millionaire."

Witherspoon said, "The director is a grand collaborator, taking inspiration from all the artists around them to create one singular vision."

"The director" is singular, but she uses a plural pronoun later on in the statement. Although it would be awkward to say, "Directors are grand collaborators," or "from all the artists around him or her," perhaps in this situation it might have worked to use just "him," since all the nominated movies had male directors.

Video: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) - Best Director - Oscars 2008 (81st Academy Awards)
The statement takes place at about the 44-second mark.

mistake #16

I know that "forsook" is the correct past tense of "forsake." But that doesn't mean I don't think it's weird. As a writer, I would avoid using this word at all costs. Clearly this Gawker writer thought differently.

Full text: Secretly, the Oscars Have Always Been This Gay

mistake #15

Fmylife.com is a website where individuals anonymously post their negative daily experiences. In this entry, an individual wrote, "Today, I was at my ex-girlfriends house, whom I still have a major crush on."

"Ex-girlfriends" should have an apostrophe before the "s" because it is possessive, but the major issue in this entry is that the sentence implies that the writer has a major crush on his ex-girlfriend's house. Oops.

mistake #14

Aside from the "is your" part of this status that makes no sense, this Facebook user should have used "you're" instead of "your." Because she means to say "you are like a hard candy," (whatever that means), "you're" is the only option.

I hope this doesn't get me in trouble. Ha.

mistake #13

Another thing that bugs me: the comma in the yellow box is just unnecessary.

mistake #12

It seems that another grammar fiend found this error before I did, but this sign from second-floor Meredith was post-worthy anyways. "Whomever" is not correct, as indicated by the scribbles the anonymous editor made over the "m." Because it would be incorrect to say, "Him has the key," we know that "whoever" should be used instead.

(The sign also implies that the key is still in the box, but clearly it is missing. It should say something like, "Whoever has the key from this box," or "Whoever has the key that belongs in this box.")

mistake #11

I'm a terrible person. Over the weekend, I went to a social function with "I'm on a Boat" (a popular song) as the theme. Individuals wore nautical clothing, sailor hats, etc. One group of girls decorated their own t-shirts quoting lyrics from the song.

Although four of the girls had quoted the lyrics with as much grammatical accuracy as can be expected from rap lyrics, the fifth girl wrote "swim-trunks" instead of "swim trunks" on her shirt, and it bugged me all afternoon. "Swim trunks" does not need hyphenation - it is two separate words.

mistake #10

Elections for Student Senate Executive Officers are coming up, and as individuals try to one-up each other through posts to their Facebook groups and careful poster placement, one individual was less than meticulous with his grammar.

This individual writes, "I want to set a president in dolling out that money, if groups.." A colon or new sentence should follow the word "money," but the more glaring error is the incorrect use of the word "president" for "precedent" - two words that sound similar, but mean entirely different things. Since this candidate is running for Student Body President, perhaps his thoughts were turned to the glory of the title as he wrote his platform.

(Other minor errors in this paragraph: "junior" should be plural, "benefits" should be substituted for the passive "is benefiting.")

mistake #9

A nitpicky comment, but related to what we've been talking about in Working with Words: Sarah Fiske, a professor of psychology at Princeton University, said, "This is just the first study which was focused on the idea," but she should have used "that" instead. According to Working with Words, "'That' introduces a clause not set off by parentheses, dashes, or commas," and since the quote includes no nonessential clause, it is not necessary to use "which."

Full text: Men see bikini-clad women as objects, psychologists say

mistake #8

The original error I found was from the commercial for Glade PlugIns Scented Oil Lasting Impressions, a new fan-powered air freshener product.

In the commercial, a woman says, "It's the longest lasting PlugIns ever!" Although "PlugIns" is the name of the product, "it's" means "it is," and so it doesn't agree with "PlugIns," which is plural. The woman should have said something like, "They are the longest lasting PlugIns ever!"

When I did a Google search to find out the complete name of the product, I came across a coupon on their website for the product, which incorrectly spells "freshener" as "freshner." Someone at SC Johnson has clearly been slacking off lately.

mistake #7

Just a simple typo, but the word "casion," judging from the context, should be replaced with "casino." This mistake comes from the Rosemount Town Pages, a weekly newspaper from a Twin Cities suburb. (On a side note, I wrote for this newspaper in high school, so finding these errors is a little more fun for me.) These types of errors are not uncommon, so expect more from the Town Pages in the future.

Full text: Felony burglary charges filed against man suspected of taking cash from St. Joseph's school

mistake #6

The problem with this Internet democracy we have is that you can't exclude individuals with bad grammar. In Sen. Adil Khan's comment, he wrote, "When Senator's look past self interest." Because he was referring to "Senators" as a plural noun, the apostrophe was unnecessary. "Self interest" should appear as "self-interest" because "self" is a modifier. Also, "Senators" should not be capitalized, because he is referring to a group of people rather than to an individual with a specific title. He did get it right later in the comment.

On a separate note, "Students" should not be capitalized in the second anonymous comment.

mistake #5

A grammar "oops" from one of my own classmates - sorry! While this student wrote that "someone is still not use to writing or typing 2009," I must suggest substituting "used" for "use." All in the name of accountability?

mistake #4

This excerpt from Gawker.com mentions Samantha Power's "unspecified 'gesture to bury the hatched,'" an attempt to use the common phrase "bury the hatchet." I'm not sure if the error falls on Power or on the writer of this post, but my first response to this quote was, "Bury the hatched what?"

Full text: Professor Who Called Clinton 'Monster' To Work With Her

mistake #3

I admit that I am sports-illiterate, but even I know that this headline on ESPN.com should say "Streak in Jeopardy" and not "Steak." Although personally, I would be much more concerned if steak was in jeopardy.

mistake #2

Not exactly a recent example, but this movie title has always bugged me. The word "weeks" should be both plural and possessive, so the correct title would be "Two Weeks' Notice."

mistake #1

This gem of a banner incorrectly uses "there's" - meaning "there is," to refer to the "many reasons," which is clearly plural. Instead, this sign should read, "There are so many reasons to love it," or something similar. Nice job, Tampa.