1) As it turns out, pontificating on what lies ahead for storytelling — a past time we bookish folk engage in today with some maddening frequency — has a long history.
Well, we “bookish folk” need to watch our spelling: it’s pastime, not past time.
2) Regardless of gender, each recruit is expected to pass the initial strength test (IST) comprised of a mile-and-a-half run, flexed arm hang or pull ups, and abdominal crunches.
It’s composed of, not comprised of. “Comprised of” is never correct. Remember: a large thing is composed of smaller parts; smaller parts comprise a larger thing.
3) We should not expect less of someone because of their gender.
“Someone” is a singular pronoun, so this sentence should read “because of his or her gender.”
4) This person did not do their job.
Same here. “This person” is singular, so it’s “his or her job.” (However, since the sex of “this person” is known—it’s difficult to imagine it’s not—then there’d be every reason to be specific.)
5) If you do not set-up a bank account, your royalties will be paid by check in the default currency of the marketplace.
“Set-up” with a hyphen is a noun: I didn’t like the set-up. The verb “set up” has no hyphen: I’ll set up that mic for you right now.
6) You can read the full Yottaa performance report here and see just how fast HubSpot website’s are.
What’s that apostrophe doing in “websites”?
7) You can now get access to all these performance improvements in a free 30-day trial of HubSpot’s CMS.
Here’s an opportunity (which was missed) to demonstrate knowledge of the coordinate adjective rule, which is the test of whether or not to put a comma between two adjectives. We’re looking at “trial” here, which is the noun that’s being modified. The coordinate adjective test is two-fold: first, can the order of the adjectives “free” and “30-day” be switched and the sentence still make sense, and, second, can you put “and” in between the adjectives and have the sentence make sense. Let’s try.
1. a 30-day free trial (which appears elsewhere on the site)
2. a free and 30-day trial
Check and check. You need a comma between “free” and “30-day.”
8) In fact, Yottaa an Internet performance company in Boston recently ran a speed-test on HubSpot and found websites hosted on HubSpot are much faster than average sites.
Two mistakes and one “issue.”
Mistakes first. I don’t know why that hyphen is there on “speed test.” It’s incorrect. However, the bigger and more obvious mistake is not enclosing the parenthetical information “an Internet performance company in Boston” with commas. That information is not strictly necessary to the sentence, since it could be removed and the sentence would still make sense. It does, however, add helpful information explaining just what the company does and where it is located, so it is nice to have. Enclose it in commas and you’re good to go.
The “issue” I have is that we’re beyond capitalizing “Internet,” just like we’ve moved beyond “World Wide Web” and “E-mail.”
9) Click on “Page Layout”, and specify the amount of indentation in the “Indent” option.
Wow, put that comma inside your quotation marks, please.
10) India’s news media has been stirred by a robust over whether Yakub Memon, a Muslim in the predominantly Hindu nation, deserved to die for his role in the attacks that killed 257 people.
We’re missing a word like “debate” here, and I think “robust” is too a) trendy, and b) trite for the context. Something that is “robust” is healthy, and 257 people dying in “attacks” isn’t “healthy” by any stretch.
11) Media reports say Gonzalez confessed his crime to police though Wednesday, Santa Cruz police said they were done talking about it.
“Done talking about it” is horrible journalism and sounds ignorant; “had nothing further to add” would have been appropriate. It’s not surprising to find horrible phrasing in such a sloppy sentence, since people who can’t write are people who can’t write. This is a little better:
Media reports say that Gonzalez confessed, though on Wednesday the Santa Cruz police department stated that it had nothing further to add.
12) The key to success was establishing the firm expectation that change was both possible and necessary to improve the credibility of our female recruits- come-new-Marines.
Wow, how’d this slip through? “…female recruits-cum-new Marines.” “Cum,” which means “combined with,” is a hyphenated expression, with the thing in its original state shown first and joined with the thing it turned into: women are now Marines, a garage accommodates a studio, and so on.
13) For the first time in history, female recruits are competitive with their male counterparts on the rifle range, proving it is not an insult to “shoot like a girl”.
Periods and commas inside quotation marks in American English, please. There are no exceptions.
14) Until every leader demands the best from our recruits and Marines regardless of gender and the Institution truly considers the benefits of a more integrated approach to boot camp, it will continue to be an insult to “train like a girl”.
This person is consistently…wrong. Also, I don’t think I’d say “recruits and Marines.” I think I’d say “Marines” and leave it at that.
15) Here lies one of the largest challenges of social media; with access to the entire world at our fingertips, it’s much easier for us to voice a heated comment or share an inappropriate photo than it used to be.
Here’s that “namely” rule when using a colon: “Here lies one of the largest challenges of social media [namely] with access…
A semicolon is wrong here. You typically use a semicolon when replacing a conjunction and a comma.
Also, I’m not keen on “largest” challenges; I would have gone with “biggest.”
16) People getting fired before they’ve even started, and not-too-long ago our very own Houston Rockets canned their social media manager for a controversial tweet during a heated rivalry with the Dallas Mavericks.
Horrible sentence. That first bit is not a complete sentence; “not too long ago” has no hyphens; the Houston Rockets are an “it,” not a “they”; and I think “canned” is too trendy to use as a verb.
17) I’m not saying we should hide in the shadows from the massive umbrage brigade with their pitchforks and torches, but we need to learn to be accountable for our mistakes.
“Brigade” is a collective noun, and so takes a singular pronoun, which, in this case, should be “its.”
18) Things will happen, and just like Gob Bluth, we must admit when we’ve made a huge mistake.
Who, pray, is “Gob Bluth”? Let’s be careful about being too trendy. Plus, there’s a problem with the commas. “Things will happen” is a complete sentence, which means it either needs a comma or a period. So is “We must admit when we’ve made a mistake.” “Just like Gob Bluth” is parenthetical (and stupid). I would have written “Things will happen, and, just like Gob Bluth, we must admit when we’ve made a huge mistake.” Better still: “Things will happen, and we must admit when we’ve made a huge mistake.” Not to get too metaphysical, but you’ve got two very different concepts here that are being joined by a conjunction. I think it’s awkward. “Things will happen,” meaning things out of your control, but then you make a “huge mistake.” Ick, ick, and ick.
19) The events in August are SIZZLING (like that massive marketing conference on the 27th -wink wink-) Check out all of the hottest things to do this month
Wow, this is a great example to trying too hard and missing the mark entirely. No periods were used. I hate that “wink, wink”; even if it was done correctly, it’d still sound like a 12-year-old wrote this. Finally, I’d say “hot things,” simply because you can only have one thing that is the “hottest.” Very bad writing.
20) HubSpot Partner Spotlight: Imagine Business Development
Imagine Business Development provides inbound marketing, sales development and advisory programs to create predictable, sustainable and scalable revenue growth for it’s clients.
It’s impossible to have confidence in a company offering “advisory programs” that can’t spell.
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