Whose obligation is it to proofread advertisements that are sent in to Coin World?
Longacre
Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
Does anyone know? I was looking at the recent issue (April 30th), and there was an advertisement for a major auction firm. In the advertisement they put a large copy of a letter from a satisfied customer (not a copy of the actual letter, but the text of it). The letter had a clear misspelling in it (if I recall, there were two misspellings). Then the auction firm highlighted two passages from the letter, by using a "text box" on the right hand side of the advertisement. As luck would have it, they picked one of the sections that had the misspelling in it, so there were actually four misspellings in the piece.
Maybe I am being a stickler, but it does not give me great confidence in the auction firm if they are putting up advertisements with clear misspellings in them. Does anyone else care about this? Should the editors of Coin World proofread the advertisements because presumably they are the experts in English and writing, and they should make these corrections?
Maybe I am being a stickler, but it does not give me great confidence in the auction firm if they are putting up advertisements with clear misspellings in them. Does anyone else care about this? Should the editors of Coin World proofread the advertisements because presumably they are the experts in English and writing, and they should make these corrections?
Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
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Comments
When I see a typo in an advertisement, it gives me a very bad opinion of the advertiser. To me it says, "Hey, we're sloppy." I know that's not how most people would react, but I'm a stickler for correct spelling.
You wouldn't believe how irritated I would get looking at the RCW ads, where it used to say at the bottom "A S.L. Contursi Company". Finally I see they fixed the "A" to be "An" just recently.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Lincoln set Colorless Set
IMHO, it is up to the advertiser to proofread their own advertisements. CoinWorld should review it for appropriate content (no swear words, naked folk, that sort of thing), but not attempt to correct spelling or grammar.
The advertiser is quoting the customer verbatim. Whether or not that's a good idea is an open question, but as long as they're intent on doing so, they need to quote the errors as is as well. They could put in a few [sic]s to make it clearer what's going on, but I don't think that's necessary.
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
<< <i>About two years ago, I sent an email to an advertiser indicating that he had a misspelling in his ad. In the next issue (or soon thereafter) the mistake was corrected. I was a little miffed when the dealer didn't even give me the courtesy of a thank you email or any sort of acknowledgement. >>
The fact that you made a difference should be sufficient reward in itself.