Tuesday, February 12, 2013

spot the errors!

An article over at Seoulistic could use a bit of proofing. Here's the opening:

Kimchi is Korea’s representative food. It’s delicious, healthy and it goes good with everything. And Koreans eat it pretty much everyday, for pretty much every meal. It can’t be THAT good can it?! Find out why Koreans eat so much kimchi!

What errors do you see? I'll tell you what I'm not counting as errors: (1) the lack of an Oxford comma after the word "healthy," and (2) the sentence beginning with "And." Stylistically, I think it's perfectly kosher to begin a sentence with a conjunction, as long as the writer and reader are clear that the article in question is being written in an informal register. In a research paper, beginning a sentence with a conjunction would be unacceptable.

So-- what problems do you see? I spotted at least three.


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3 comments:

  1. Surprises AplentyFebruary 12, 2013 at 8:59:00 PM GMT+9

    Well, you made me google "it's v its" as I always get it wrong. Its my cross to bear.

    "good" should be "well"
    "THAT good can it" should have a comma.
    I'm not sure of the third problem, unless you find the "?!" or the double "pretty much" as annoying as I do. The second "pretty much" seems wrong, too.

    Did you pick this excerpt because the errors were relatively hard to find or because it is somewhat more professionally presented than a blog? My own blog's errors are more obvious and well display my lack of proofing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Horace Jeffery HodgesFebruary 13, 2013 at 6:08:00 AM GMT+9

    The items in the series should be made parallel by deleting "it goes" -- thereby correcting "good" -- "everyday" should be "every day," and a comma belongs after "THAT good."

    But the real problem is the annoying exaggeration, the boastfulness about Kimchi, as exemplified in the claim that it is "good with everything."

    The piece is ostensibly written to get foreigners to try kimchi, but the writing betrays a characteristic Korean failure to see things from a foreigner's perspective.

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    ReplyDelete
  3. ElissonFebruary 13, 2013 at 8:29:00 AM GMT+9

    Corrected version:

    Kimchi is Korea’s representative food. It’s delicious, healthy, and it goes well with everything. And Koreans eat it almost every day, for almost every meal. It can’t be that good, can it? Find out why Koreans eat so much kimchi!

    I substituted "almost" for the too-colloquial "pretty much," which does not wear well when repeated for effect.

    ReplyDelete

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