...can you spot in the home-page copy for MovieHD.net?
Welcome to MovieHD.net Here you can watch movies online for free We update our site everyday with new movies, Keep visiting us often, Bookmark us and tell all your friends and family! Enjoy!
Thanks allot, your MovieHD.net administrator...
I count 9 errors in 38 words: a 23.6 percent error rate.
1. There's no need for MovieHD.net to be a link in the first sentence. It links to the page we're already on.
2. A period is missing after "Welcome to MovieHD.net."
3. A period is missing after "...for free."*
4. Everyday means "commonplace" or "ordinary." The synonym for "daily" is every day: two words.
5. The comma after "...new movies" should be a period.
6. The comma after "often" should be a period.
7. Allot is a verb meaning "assign" or "distribute." What's wanted here is a lot. (I've frequently seen it misspelled alot, but never allot.)
8. Your MovieHD.net administrator should be on a separate line, as the signature. However, it isn't actually necessary at all: authorship by "administrator" is assumed.
9. No ellipsis, or any other punctuation, is needed at the end of the signature.
One error in 38 words of web copy is embarrassing. Nine? Inexcusable.
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* If you're very persnickety, you may count for free among the errors. I'll give it a pass. Here's what Bryan A. Garner says about it in Garner's Modern American Usage:
Because free by itself can function as an adverb in the sense "at not cost," some critics reject the phrase for free. A phrase such as for nothing, at no cost, or a similar substitute will often work better.
Yet while it's true that for free is a casualism and a severely overworked ad cliché, the expression is far too common to be called an error. Sometimes the syntax all but demands it—e.g.: "Soft-dollar arrangements . . . include various services like research and information that big institutional clients receive for free from brokers."
Garner classifies for free as Stage 4 in his Language Change Index: "Ubiquitous, but . . ."
To be fair, a lot (not "allot") of Web sites are operated by people whose first language is not English. On the other hand, it's not too much to expect that such people would have an English speaker proof-read their copy before going "live".
Posted by: Bob Cumbow | January 21, 2010 at 10:05 AM
The site is clearly the work of a 12-year-old, published from his (or her -- but probably his) bedroom.
Leaving aside the language-related errors, the design and layout are basic and unimaginative (probably template-derived), and such things as the aspect ratio error (these are DVD boxes which are tall, not CD cases which are square) shows that the originator is struggling to cope with the technology.
However, having said that, he wants to operate in the real world rather than high school so, quite rightly, you should not make allowances.
Posted by: John Russell | January 22, 2010 at 12:35 AM
Brief to writer: We'd like you to sell our product but without resorting to the full stop. Use any punctuation other than the full stop - comma, exclamation mark or none at all, we don't care.
The dot, being part of our name is an important element of our brand so if you must use dots outside of the name MovieHD.net, you must only use them in groups of three. For further information, refer to our house style guide.
Posted by: Clare Lynch | January 22, 2010 at 02:16 AM
"Proofread" has no hyphen.
Just sayin' :)
Posted by: Bill Tozier | January 22, 2010 at 05:38 AM
I've noticed that the period more and more is punctuata non grata in commercial usage. Except when used for design effect only, as in a Chevy Camaro ad in Dwell, whose entire copy reads "Finessed and furious." Which really deserves a grammatical spanking on its own.
Posted by: Diana Landau | January 23, 2010 at 03:26 PM