Saturday, August 11, 2012

Grammar contest! With a prize! Woot!


Image courtesy of Kittisak /
FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Starting a contest! "Catch That Typo" will test not just your eyes but your knowledge of grammar. You're a writer, you say? Then these should be easy! Find the typo in the selection and mention it in a comment. [Contest change: send your guess in an email through the link in my profile. Other comments on this post are welcome, though!] Everybody who answers correctly will be entered in a drawing to WIN one of these books (you get to choose):


I'll collect comments for three days, starting today. On Wednesday August 15 I'll post the answer and the winner's name. [Contest change: send your guess in an email through the link in my profile. Other comments on this post are welcome, though!]
For my contest typos are defined as
  • transposed letters ("foru" instead of "four"),
  • use of the wrong letter ("richshaw" instead of "rickshaw"),
  • apostrophes dropped, or added unnecessarily,
  • malapropisms ("He had to use a fire distinguisher to put the fire out.")
  • homophones (to, too, and two; you're, your, and yore)
  • incorrect tense ("It's a shame his ice sculpture melted because he work hard at it"--should be worked)
I'm including all of those because a decent editing pass (not just relying on spellcheck) should catch them. If one of those mistakes makes it into print, somebody didn't do their job because it's avoidable in most instances.
Today's selection:
From now till the end of the month, take advantage of our free shipping offer, valid on any products side-wide. There's no minimum purchase and our usual restrictions apply.
You have until Tuesday night, August 14 to say what you think the typo is, in a comment [EMAIL]  to this post.  Good luck!

3 comments:

  1. "Then these should be easy" = "Then this should be easy"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting guesses! I'll be collecting answers through Tuesday night :)

    ReplyDelete