Confusing the reader
Spotted recently, pinned to a hand-dryer:
This facility is unavailable due to essential maintenance works
… because ‘broken’ really would have been too simple.
Along similar lines, on a trip to Versailles a month or so ago:
The tour continues on the opposite side of the peristyle.
OK, make me feel stupid. Peristyle? Where do I go now? Oh – you mean the walkway with columns that I’m standing in.
Why is it that people writing notices – or proposals – feel the need to try and impress the reader with overly-grandiose language? And don’t they realise that, in their attempts to impress, they actually achieve the very opposite?
And then sometimes there’s stuff that’s just weird – like the name of the shop I passed in my cab en route to Abu Dhabi airport, all-too-early the other morning having run a course there for a great group:
Syria Flower Butchery
No, I couldn’t work it out either. But there seemed to be more flowers around than carcasses, and I’d be more than a little concerned about asking them to make up a bouquet…
This article was written by Jon and filed under Word play & writing. If you found it useful, you can with others. To receive automatic updates, subscribe to The Proposal Guys via 
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