As professional B2B proofreaders, we see lots of documents and lots of mistakes. Here are some words and phrases that we often see misspelled or misused.
1. Whoa
A word becoming more common in B2B newsletters is whoa. Maybe it’s a reaction to tariff news. Maybe it’s used to tell your politicking friends to chill. Maybe it’s just a simple imperative. We see it misspelled woah all too often. Whoa! Don’t do that!
2. Canceled
How about the past tense of cancel? It’s got only ONE l. That is, unless you’re British…or Canadian…or Australian. Sure, you’ve seen all those TV news clips when planes are backed up and the air traffic boards have Cancelled all over them. But please gag when you see that and drop a note to the FAA. It’s canceled!
3. Noon or Midnight
Speaking of TV and how wrong it can be, do as we do and insist that there is no such thing as “12:00 P.M.” or “12:00 A.M.” Write to your TV station and get them to wise up when they show those weather timelines. Text Bill Gates that his lackadaisical Windoze calendar system has it all wrong.
How do we know?
A.M. means ante meridiem, which is Latin for “before the middle of the day.” (Other ante words: anteroom: a room you go into before another room, a/k/a a waiting room; ante bellum: before the war, often about the years leading up to the Civil War; antecedent: a preceding event.) P.M. means post meridiem, which is Latin for “after the middle of the day.”
Back up a bit and realize that the middle of the day is when the big and little hands of the clock are pointing straight up, a special moment in time that is
neither before midday nor after midday…it is midday. It’s correct to call it noon.
And exactly twelve hours later, when the clock hands are again straight up, well, that’s midnight, which is equidistant from midday no matter which way you go, so it’s no more after midday than it is before midday…it’s just as far from the previous midday as it is from the upcoming midday. Call it nothing but midnight.
4. Misused Phrase
Another one (these are all pet peeves of mine and of my erudite proofreaders, all of whom are just champing [yes, champing] at the bit to make you look brilliant) is that ear-splitting phrase, “I could care less.”
Pleeeeze! Fingernails scraping down blackboards sound better! If you could care less than you do, you are saying you care…at least some. If you really do not care at all, then say “I couldn’t care less,” meaning that you have absolutely no care to give…your care bucket is empty.
5. Company Names
Finally (for today, anyway…we’re proofreaders, so we have dozens more), what about company names? It’s Procter & Gamble (not Proctor); Walmart (not WalMart); Microsoft (not MicroSoft); Costco (not CostCo); FedEx (not Federal Express); and Dunkin' (not Dunkin' Donuts).
Trust me: there are many more. I bet people in your sphere are making these or similar mistakes and whistling along merrily, oblivious to the snickers and silent ridicule by readers in the know.
As we say so often here at ProofreadNOW.com, not everyone will care, but the ones who DO care are probably just the people you are trying to reach.
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