Martha may be skilled in housekeeping, but her website's copy editor needs firing

[thatcrazycajun]

From Martha Stewart's official website, courtesy of my current temp client:

• Plus, Martha's friend Peter Arnell returns with a first look at the new state-of-the-art fire extinguisher you should have in you home.

And on the very next page:

• Designed as an appliance for the kitchen, the HomeHero works with its environment so people can keep it in plain site where they can quickly grab it in an emergency.

(Emphases in red mine.)
To paraphrase the late, great Casey Stengel, can't anybody around here spell this damn language? "Site" instead of "sight"? "In you home" instead of "in your home"? Jeeze Louise, a first-year copywriting intern knows better than this. One does not expect to see such egregious, glaring errors on a high-end, high-cost website run by the world's most famous domestic doyenne.

Comments

[mshollie.livejournal.com]

So, there's hope for me yet. I've been spending the last three days tearing down a website that changed hands from me to another designer (I spent the last four years designing and maintaining it), and to see that even Martha Stewart's site has glaring errors holds promise for this journeywoman.

Part of my corporate name is "Words and Design"; that includes clean copywriting and editing as well as clean design. I value substance over style and I pride myself on conveying information in a simple, easy to read manner.

Thanks for making my day today. :)

[katrinb.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling. Right now I'm working with a database that asks me "Do you want close database?" when I shut it down. It makes me want to hit things.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

>>I know the feeling. Right now I'm working with a database that asks me "Do you want close database?" when I shut it down. It makes me want to hit things.<<

That sounds like it should be a LOLcat caption...I can picture a cat with a paw hovering over the keyboard looking at the camera.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

I'll bet they're relying on a spellchucker [sic]. Those things can only tell if you're using a real word (or, more precisely, one that's in its dictionary), not if you're using the right word.

Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody