Every Business Needs an Editor
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008LOL! The new Consumer Reports arrived in yesterday’s mail. My favorite department is “Selling It: Goofs | Glitches | Gotchas,” which runs on cover 3 (the inside back cover). This month readers send in several prime examples of what happens when you don’t run your ad copy past an editor.
Bill Bryson is pitching his “wonderfully readable guide to the foibles found in the English language” with an out-take showing several of the book’s definitions. He tells us lagniappe is pronounced “lay-yap” and then spells the Frenchified word for concentrated beef broth boullon, reminding us that the last syllable is not spelled -ion. That would be “lan-yap” and “bouillon,” Bill…
French contributions to English continue to harry marketers. One of them tells us we should just call “creeps” pancakes: Mu Shu Beef with (4) Creeps; Moo Shu Pork with (4) Creeps. Yipe! Will they follow you home from the take-out place?
A purveyor of sugary treats rhapsodizes: “Over-optimism modest chocolate and a soft marshmallow lead you in elegant tea time.” Hm. Well, around here, an elegant tea would be over-optimistic. But…what are they trying to say to us?
Countrywide Home Loans is trying to say that it should have paid attention to the properties on which it was writing mortgages. One of them, as it develops, was a post office box. Talk about a place not being worth what you borrowed for it!
Every writer needs an editor!