Saturday

Becky Reads Company: December 2013

When the latest issue of Company plopped onto my doormat (yes, I subscribe. Like I said last month, I love to hate it!), I was very excited about creating my second installment of Becky Reads Company. My first post in this series was really well received and I had a lot of fun creating it. I snuggled up all cosy on my sofa, opened the magazine, started reading the first page of text and HOLY SPELLING MISTAKE, BATMAN! I actually counted the words- It was 28 words into the magazine. In the editor's letter. Woah. 

I'll talk about that more later but, for now, just take that as a bar for the standard of the rest of the issue. 

The good

I love velvet. I love shoes. Velvet shoes? Come to me, my babies! 

This styling is so adorable! 

HANSON ARE BACK! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD! 

My feelings on Jameela Jamil swing back and forth quite rapidly. However, her column tackling abortion was sensitive, mature and intelligent. Bravo! 

I blooming love Christmas jumpers! Look at the little puggy one! "The novelty animal tribe" describes me perfectly. 

Some people might think designer collaborations go too far, but I actually think these Giles Deacon ones are genius. Collaborating with Muller Light? So bizarre but I love it! As for those Superga shoes? I need them in my life! 

I find psychology really interesting, so The Science of Shopping fascinated me. It talked all about the way shops use the senses, particularly smell, to enhance sales. 

The bad

"The spaghetti straps on this dress give it a 90s edge." Bonus points for not using an apostrophe in "90s" but it would be nice to actually see the spaghetti straps mentioned. 

Is there any need to mention that the coffee you bought was skinny? It bears no relevance to the article. Not to mention the fact that it ruins the lovely alliterative quality of "morning mocha". Nobody's going to think any less of you for buying a normal bloody coffee. Buying a skinny one does not make you seem cooler, or more desirable, or more attractive. It just makes you seem like a superficial idiot. Not to mention the bizarre comma in the middle of a clause and the ridiculous overuse of hashtags (5 in this article alone), but more on that later. It's a shame, as the concept of the article is really positive. 

It's not the article that annoyed me (I actually found it very positive and inspiring) but that, yet again, Company feel the need to illustrate an article referencing geeks with big, black glasses. It's such a superficial idea of what a geek is. 

Want to go back to Myspace circa 2005? This list of photo-editing apps will tell you how to get that taste-free 16 year old girl look. Look! I can get a heart on my selfie! 

The ugly

Yes, I marked the editor's letter. No, I have no shame. I actually had to do this so I could keep track of just how many errors there were. It's ridiculous. First of all, it's "collaborative", not "collaberative". Come on, how difficult is it to check? You can Google it in 2 seconds flat. Especially since, you know, it's your job. Then there's the lack of speech marks to close the quote, although they actually seem to have slid down the page to close a quote that has no opening speech marks. Finally, I know I'm being picky, but can we talk about the overuse of ellipses? It reminds me of the time I learned how to use a semi-colon and used one in every other sentence. Reckon the editor has only just discovered the wonders of an ellipsis? 

Oh look, two pages later and we still cannot master the use of speech marks. What is going on at Company HQ? 

You know incorrect punctuation is my biggest pet hate, so bear with me. Why has "Frowers" got a capital letter? When did we start capitalising common nouns in English? It should be "FROWers" or "frowers". Either would be correct. 

#trending. #stophashtaggingeverything. 

30 comments :

  1. I don't understand why they don't just get a decent English language student intern to do their sub editing for them even if they can't afford one?! And why is there no spellcheck function on the program they use?

    I'd say frowers by the way as it's an amalgamation, like jeggings or Jedward.
    xoxox

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  2. Haha I love the idea of #BeckyReadsCompany (sorry...)! I have quite love/hate feels about it too, as someone whose job is basically proofreading and editing, the spelling and grammar mistakes REALLY offend me - when there's thousands of girls out there dying to work in magazines who are creating blogs with impeccable writing quality, it feels like a bit of a pisstake and really unprofessional.

    On a lighter note.. HANSON YAY!

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    1. Get that hashtag away from me!

      I can't imagine how it must feel to have impeccable written English skills, be desperate for a way into the magazine industry and then read something this shoddy. It's making a mockery of the whole system.

      Delete
  3. I have to do it… there I did it!!! #OHEMGEE.
    But on a serious note I loved this post, will definitely be giggling when I get my copy and spot these errors.

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  4. Another great post Becky. I can't believe there's spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in the editor's letter. Attention to detail is so crucial in journalism. Maybe you should be the editor lol. The hashtag stuff needs to stop. I'm so sick of seeing them in magazines. Company also needs to stop being so stereotypical with the whole geek stuff. It's not cool. They need to think outside the box.

    Mary

    popgoesfashion.com

    x

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    Replies
    1. It's insane! Maybe we should plan a protest haha!

      Delete
  5. I love this feature. I think sometimes Company has great potential and every so often they have a real gem of an article but the constant spelling and grammar issues really grate on me and stop me picking it up in a shop. I also hate how they take something and it instantly becomes their '-spiration' Shoespiration, stylespiration, sleepspiration; it's so irritating! Add the constant hashtagging and it really is a big ol' mess of a magazine for the most part. I just can't understand why they make so many errors. Perhaps a few would be forgivable, as it would with most magazines, but they're on such a large scale and often quite jarring that it really brings the whole magazine down.

    I love this feature though and it's good to know I'm not the only stickler out there! xx

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    1. I agree with you so much! I'm so happy that they seem to have forgotten about -spiration in this issue!

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  6. Argh! Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in an Editor's Letter? No. Just NO!

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    1. How can you be an editor if you can't even write a simple letter without a mistake?

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  7. Mua ha ha haaaa! I bloody love this. The most shocking part? The editor's letter!

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    1. It's terrible! How exactly did she get her job?

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  8. Those mistakes are pretty terrible! x

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  9. You're making life hard for the publication's copy editor. IF they have a copy editor. Cold world.

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    Replies
    1. I should feel bad but I'm too offended by the terrible quality!

      Delete
  10. I LOVE that you marked the editor's letter! This is amazing, I hope Company read these posts, they're fab! (Sorry about my overuse of exclamation marks).

    xx

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    1. I'm an exclamation mark fan so I think I can excuse you!

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  11. Haha brilliant, I can't believe the editors letter!

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  12. I really rather love this.
    You seem to have awakened the beast in me, I now want to go buy ALL THE MAGAZINES just for grammar checking purposes.
    The velvet shoesies are bodacious though.
    M x Life Outside London

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  13. I love these posts. I literally just buy glossy mags for the freebies these days.

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  14. I'm going to tell you a story. So I'm browsing Google for blogging tips. I come across your blog and read a few of your helpful lists. I conciser following you on Bloglovin, but decide to read a few of your newer posts first. Yup, I'm convinced, you're pretty great. I'm about to leave without commenting quite yet since I'm a super new reader...then I see something in this post. A photo of my favorite band from a magazine. I scroll back up to find it and I was right. Then I pause for a worried minute before reading your caption. YES! Oh you understand! Hanson is love. <3 Also, your blog is super gorgeous and helpful, I'm sticking around. ;)

    Jenny
    MagicCatJenny

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    1. Haha thank you! I love this comment so much!

      Delete
  15. Can I become a magazine editor... I wonder? Oh wait...I can spell...and I can use punktuacion...

    Seriously, the editor's letter is a joke. I think I could have written a better paragraph, aged 10.

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    1. I'm not even joking, some of the 7 year olds in my class have better writing skills than this. Seriously!

      Delete

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