After receiving the recent edition of “Shepway Today”, here at Shepway Vox we were surprised to find over 100 grammatical or spelling errors littered through this 24 page “puff piece” publication.
The Communications team is lead by Mark Luetchford, who used to work in communications in London for the DCLG, so we are wondering – did he, or his team, even proof read this magazine before it went to print?
So go grab a copy, if you have one to hand, and let’s laugh at some of the major howlers Mr Luetchford and his team have sent us.
“For £3 a week we will provide all the equipment, monitoring and maintenance”
Really? I think you’ll find it’s £3.10 a week as you upped the price on 1 April. And it’s not £3.00 a week, your advert fails to disclose the £36 installation fee too! Uh oh – a tad misleading!
PAGE 3 – Grammar & Spelling fails
4-5 – Snippets of ‘whats’ going on around Shepway —- apostrophe fail (what’s)
15 – Community infrastructure — please explain what “fcilities we all use” are? Don’t you mean facilities?
16-17 – Clean for the Queen (Queens 90th birthday) —- apostrophe fail (Queen’s)
20-21 – Whats happening in the Creative Quarter) —- again (What’s)!!!!!
PAGE 7 – Grammar fail
“….Strange Cargo, renovate part of it’s new base at the Factory” —- It is? It should be “its”
PAGE 9 – Grammar Fail
Can someone tell us what wild-flower turf is? A simple Dictionary could have been handy Mr Luetchford, as it is “wildflower”
PAGE 12 – Grammar Fail
“high quality restaurants” – No, if something is of high quality it is “high-quality”
“multi – – storey” —– Why the double? Surely it is “multi-storey”
PAGE 14 – Grammar Fail
“…and eleven new fishermen’s huts.” Now do remember good people, fishermen is not a singular (there is a fisherman and not a fishermen) it should be “fishermens’ huts”. Poor form and amateur.
PAGE 17 – Do you even know Shepway?
Where is Capel Le Ferne? Oh…. You mean Capel-Le-Ferne???
PAGE 18 – Grammar fails
“Children’s Paradise”…..? As above. It can be a “Child’s paradise” or a “Childrens’ paradise”
PAGE 19 – Grammar Fail
What is “newly refurbished Harbour Arm”? If the Harbour Arm has been refurbished recently, it is “newly-refurbished”.
We could go on with the amount of commas and colons and full stops which need to be added to this tin pot puff piece which hardly anyone reads.
But we ask you – how much would a 24 page colour magazine complete with postage cost to be sent to our 50,000 plus homes and businesses in our District? Well, a ball park figure for printing alone would be £3,800. And just how much is our esteemed “Head of Communications” on, when he and his team can’t even detect the basics of the English language?
What a bunch of clowns. I grabbed my copy, and what a hoot it was to read this and spot them too. I think you should have this somewhere on the page!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjedLeVGcfE
What is the ‘Peter Principle’
The Peter principle is an observation that in an organizational hierarchy, every employee will rise or get promoted to his or her level of incompetence. The Peter Principle is based on the notion that employees will get promoted as long as they are competent, but at some point will fail to get promoted beyond a certain job because it has become too challenging for them. Employees rise to their level of incompetence and stay there. Over time, every position in the hierarchy will be filled by someone who is not competent enough to carry out his or her new duties.
(http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/peter-principle.asp#ixzz49BsDqI33)
Feel free to replace “employee” with “counciliar”……..
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What a bunch of clowns. I grabbed my copy, and what a hoot it was to read this and spot them too. I think you should have this somewhere on the page!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjedLeVGcfE
Nice touch Judy! And it would lighten proceedings if Council meetings could assemble to this tune, possibly also concentrate a few minds.
At least whilst pedantically checking for errors you became one of the few who bothered to read it all!
Agreed but Mr Luecthford, was paid to do this job and so were his team. We alas, were not.
Here we see the “Peter Principle” in action..
What is the ‘Peter Principle’
The Peter principle is an observation that in an organizational hierarchy, every employee will rise or get promoted to his or her level of incompetence. The Peter Principle is based on the notion that employees will get promoted as long as they are competent, but at some point will fail to get promoted beyond a certain job because it has become too challenging for them. Employees rise to their level of incompetence and stay there. Over time, every position in the hierarchy will be filled by someone who is not competent enough to carry out his or her new duties.
(http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/peter-principle.asp#ixzz49BsDqI33)
Feel free to replace “employee” with “counciliar”……..
I enjoy reading Shepway Vox.
Quite agree there were some real howlers and I can’t believe no-one picked them up!