Yesterday, I posted about the article that accompanied this picture (or actually the other way around) on Good English being about communication.
Today, I want to zoom in on the picture. Read the text on the flip chart and have a laugh. It reads: "Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time." This was an actual sentence spotted at a Singapore shopping mall.
I wonder what the sales and marketing people had in mind???!!! Which woman in her right mind would strip naked and enter the store to have a good time?! It's a public place. Men, women, children can all wander in and out to browse and to buy. But, which woman would like to be stared at because she's start naked in a store?! She would probably be arrested for indecent exposure before anything else can happen. Definitely, no "good time" for her.
For obvious reasons, this line was featured during the launch of the Speak Good English campaign to show you the poor use of the English language in public.
Before you click "publish" or "send", read and re-read your text. Ask a few people to read it too. Get their honest opinions and comments. Don't be afraid to wait a day or two and read it again, before you send it out. Once published, people will always remember the poorly written text, rather than the corrected text. This is why journalists get their pay docked if their story has a "What it should have been" or "Correction" paragraph printed the next day. It always pays to be extra careful.
By all means keep writing. Practise makes perfect. Writing is a skill and an art. The more you read and write, the better you will be at it. Even the most experienced copywriters can make mistakes. Check and re-check. Leave your ego out of your writing. It will make you a better writer in the long run.
Enjoy the English language, or any language, for that matter. It's all about communication.
Happy communicating!
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