Faulty Proof Reader

The following advert—placed by someone offering the service of proof reading documents and letters for others—is a bit sad.

It contains a number of grammatical, spelling, and syntax errors in just the 45+ words it contains.

This pavement advertisement was snapped by a passer-by using a mobile phone and then posted on Digg. As can be seen other people who have observed the sign as they walked by could not resist making a few corrections. Note:

• an “l” missing from ‘spelling’';
• the “t” missing from ‘punctuation’;
• the missing comma after ‘puncuation’ (sic); and
• the possible wrong meaning of using the term ‘word use’ rather than ‘word choice’.

But there are other errors here.

• There is no requirement for a capital ‘N’ on ‘native’ in the first line.
• There is no requirement for a comma after ‘United States’ in the second line.
• There should be an ‘and’ before ‘word use’ in the list.

The spelling errors are seriously sad considering the person who compiled and printed the sign almost certainly would have used a word processor—complete with a built in spell checking capability!