Vancouver

Skip to content
  • Home
  • About this blog
  • Using online articles and press releases to boost your web site’s search engine ranking
  • Why those cheap SEO articles and press releases outsourced to foreign writers aren’t working as well as you think

I’m not sure a granite hairdryer is a good idea

When editing corporate copy, I see a lot of simple mistakes that end up making the business sound pretty goofy. Here’s a typical example of a common mistake:

Suites have newly renovated bathrooms with granite counter tops and hairdryers.

The granite counter tops sound great, but those granite hairdryers are probably pretty heavy…

The problem here is that the adjective (granite) looks like it’s modifying both nouns (counter tops and hairdryers). The simplest way to solve this problem is to switch the sentence around:

Suites have newly renovated bathrooms with hairdryers and granite counter tops.

Are you scaring potential customers away by unwittingly threatening them with extra-heavy small appliances? A good editor can save you from embarrassing mistakes that cost you customers and leads.

This was written by Christina. Posted on Wednesday, October 22, 2008, at 5:13 pm. Filed under Cautionary tales. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

One Comment

  1. chris wright wrote:

    Just wanted to say – great blog!

    Really useful (punctuation is not the strongest facet of my writing)and highly amusing. Thanks.

    Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 12:14 am | Permalink
‹ I know it’s the Internet, but still…
Using online articles and press releases to boost your web site’s search engine ranking ›
vancouver
  • Links

    • -About this blog-
    • -Home-
    • ChristinaNewberry.com
  • Recent Posts

    • Sometimes wordplay is just not appropriate
    • Proofread, please, please, please!
    • Safety walk in bathtubs?
    • Three new articles: Sprouts, Calcium, and Fine Island Dining
    • Just because it made me laugh…
  • Pages

    • About this blog
    • Using online articles and press releases to boost your web site’s search engine ranking
    • Why those cheap SEO articles and press releases outsourced to foreign writers aren’t working as well as you think
  • Archives

    • January 2012
    • October 2011
    • August 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
    • February 2010
    • December 2009
    • November 2009
    • October 2009
    • September 2009
    • August 2009
    • July 2009
    • June 2009
    • May 2009
    • March 2009
    • February 2009
    • January 2009
    • December 2008
    • October 2008
    • September 2008
    • August 2008
    • July 2008
    • June 2008
    • May 2008
    • April 2008
    • March 2008
    • February 2008
  • Categories

    • Cautionary tales
    • Great reads
    • Rants
    • Scary reads
    • Uncategorized
  • RSS Links

    • All posts
    • All comments
  •  

    February 2012
    S M T W T F S
    « Jan    
     1234
    567891011
    12131415161718
    19202122232425
    26272829  
© 2012 Christina ¶ Thanks, WordPress. ¶ veryplaintxt theme by Scott Allan Wallick. ¶ It's nice XHTML & CSS.