Posted by Jon
Sometimes it’s the silly things that bring light relief when working on proposals. Like last week, when a group of us came across the following word in a document:
Sometimes it’s the silly things that bring light relief when working on proposals. Like last week, when a group of us came across the following word in a document:
“Persions”
What had they really meant? Persons? Pensions? Persians? Perversions, even?
My reason for sharing is that the error was contained within a web site address – and I’d never actually stopped to consider the now-obvious point that Word’s spell check doesn’t check words within URLs. Care needed! Not that anyone would send a proposal out without having it properly proofread, of course (?)
Later in the day, I read about a meeting needing a ‘quarum’ to make a decision. Either it was a typo, or it’s some little-known ancient post – a learned individual, clad in robes, appearing before the gathering to adjudicate: “All hail to the quarum, bringer of wisdom and of peace…”
And then there’s my favourite recent example of “newordology”. One of our associates was proofreading some proposal text recently. The exchange went something like this:
My reason for sharing is that the error was contained within a web site address – and I’d never actually stopped to consider the now-obvious point that Word’s spell check doesn’t check words within URLs. Care needed! Not that anyone would send a proposal out without having it properly proofread, of course (?)
Later in the day, I read about a meeting needing a ‘quarum’ to make a decision. Either it was a typo, or it’s some little-known ancient post – a learned individual, clad in robes, appearing before the gathering to adjudicate: “All hail to the quarum, bringer of wisdom and of peace…”
And then there’s my favourite recent example of “newordology”. One of our associates was proofreading some proposal text recently. The exchange went something like this:
Proofreader: “You can’t use ‘geoscope’.”
Proposal team member: “Why on earth not?”
Proofreader: “Because it’s not in the dictionary.”
Proposal team member: “But it’s a really good way of explaining that we offer worldwide coverage”. “
Proofreader: “Yes, but it’s not a word.”
Proposal team member: “Well we like it. Leave it in anyway.”
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