More error-ridden material from “professional” writers. And don’t just stop at one mistake per sentence, either: more than one sentence has more than one mistake!
1) Simply put, It’s worth more than your credit card!
Improper capitalization: lower case that “I.”
2) I’ll give you a scientifically-proven technique for customizing your social media.
Never hyphenate an —ly adverb.
3) You need to build awareness and buzz about your webinar so people can sign up to be apart of it.
One space can make a bunch of difference, and missing that one space is especially unfortunate in this particular sentence. “A part” means to be part of; “apart” means to be separate.
4) Since you’re working hard to produce blog content associated with your webinar, embed call to actions on your blog and website to capture the attention of your visitors.
“Call-to-action” is what’s called a compound noun. The proper plural is “calls-to-action.” A dictionary will give the plural form of most compounds that are tricky (attorneys general, mothers-in-law, aides-de-camp, coups de foudre, letters to the editor, turns of phrase, passers by (or passersby), etc.).
5) The company, the nation’s largest privately-owned bacon manufacturer is building a new 300,000 sq. ft. plant that offers Sous Vide cooking and provides big brands with innovative co-development labs.
Again, no hyphen with an —ly adverb. Also, the information in the phrase “the nation’s largest privately owned bacon manufacturer” is what’s called parenthetical information; in other words, information that’s interesting but not absolutely necessary in the sentence, which is about the new manufacturing facility. So, that phrase needs to be enclosed by commas, which means there should have been a comma between “manufacturer” and “is.”
Here’s the trick: When parenthetical information is placed in the middle of a sentence, you should be able to remove the information between the commas and still have the sentence make sense. Try it.
6) It provides a wide-ranging, value-added assortment of raw and fully-cooked products for domestic and international customers across all channels of trade.
Again (and again!): no hyphenating —ly adverbs. I know it sounds right, but it isn’t.
7) JiLin is a Chinese province of more than 27 million people located roughly 600 miles Northeast of Beijing.
“Northeast” is not a proper noun here, it indicates direction, so it is not capitalized. If you said “the Northeast,” however, referring to New England, then it’d be a proper noun and so would be capitalized.
8) The JiLin Chicago Business Center opened it’s doors in October 2014 with officials from the Chinese Government and Chicago business leaders, in addition to Chinese suppliers and American buyers.
Yikes! Huge mistake: the old its versus it’s mistake. Microsoft Word caught this; why didn’t the author?
Also, “Government” is not a proper noun in this case, and so shouldn’t be capitalized.
9) The expectations are stated upfront, roles are clearly defined and employee growth is inevitable at a solid manufacturing company.
To my mind, the expression “up front” is a little too colloquial for business writing: it smacks of playground chatter. At any rate, “upfront” is not one word. At best, it’s hyphenated as an expression, and isn’t one word in any situation. How ‘bout a more grownup expression?
I have two other problems with this sentence. First, there are three items in this list and, in my opinion, every item should be separated by a comma for clarity. Second, “inevitable” and “solid” aren’t good word choices; “inevitable” is especially bad. Few things are “inevitable,” especially in business.
10) With the safety and even people’s lives at risk-there is no room to make mistakes.
Not a good sentence. We’ve got two basically identical concepts to kick it off: questionable safety does put people at risk. Plus, that hyphen is all wrong there—it should have been a dash. And, a dash isn’t particularly wonderful there—I would have used a comma.
My take: With people’s lives at risk, there is no room to make mistakes.
12) 81% of marketers in manufacturing are on YouTube, not only that-it’s reported as the most effective channel they use in their content marketing.
Really bad sentence.
Rule: Never start a sentence with a numeral: spell it out. Also, spell out “percent.”
Rule: This is a comma splice, which is two sentences jammed together without the benefit of proper punctuation. In this case, you either need a semicolon after YouTube, or you divide the sentence in two after YouTube.
Rule: Here’s another person using a hyphen as a dash. A hyphen is not a dash. A hyphen joins, while a dash separates.
Corrected: Eighty-one percent of marketers in manufacturing are on YouTube; not only that, YouTube is reported as the most effective channel they use in their content marketing.
13) Manufacturing companies stick to educational industry content in video format, what’s stopping you from doing the same?
Geez, what a nasty comma splice! You need a semicolon after “format,” not a comma.
14) Manufacturing websites are rarely friendly to the eye, today’s mobile audience and are next to impossible to find what you’re actually looking for.
I have no idea what that sentence means.
15) Think digital and remember that social media sites, marketing ads, and content all work to drive traffic towards the website in the hopes of converting people to register for a newsletters, sign up for other information, or make a purchase.
What a long, convoluted sentence! At a minimum, I would have put a comma after “digital.” And “converting” is not good here: “encouraging” or “convincing” would have been better. “Converting” people to do something sounds a tad ominous.
16) Setup a call to chat about your business.
“Setup” is wrong here. One word as noun, two words as verb.
17) He is a huge analytics guy, and lives by the mantra “Test, review, revise, retest!”.
Major mistake is that period at the end of the sentence. Also, since we’re quoting this guy, put a colon after “mantra.”
18) To be an example through Gods love and being a shining light in the world through others.
Very awkward sentence. Of course, it should read “God’s love.” But the rest of it is difficult, especially given the proximity of “God” and “being.” Brother!
I am not going to hazard a guess as to how this sentence should read.
19) He is a globally-recognized blogger, speaker, educator, business consultant, and author.
Ooops! That old bugaboo the hyphenated —ly adverb rears its ugly head. So much for being “globally recognized”!
20) They had become familiar with inbound marketing through it’s blog content and free educational resources.
Wow. We need more “free educational resources”! Lots more!
Now, who caught the mistake in the list format itself?
Need a hint? Where’s Item #11?
Lists are fraught with peril; always check and double-check your work!!
Need help with content editing? Please give EditNATION.com owner Liz Coursen a call at 941-706-2463.
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