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Alton Towers/Merlin Typos & Grammatical Errors

Alsty said:
From my hotel reservation - does anybody else find the Upper Casing Of Every Word Really Annoying?

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One could argue this speaks a lot about the standard of English education in the schools in the Stoke-on-Trent area, from where the vast majority of Towers staff are drawn from!

You should have read some of the ride incident report forms that staff had to fill in... I've seen "the gest laft at me" & "the gest called me a f*kwit" - yes, they could not even spell the expletive part correctly.
 
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Kraken27 said:
One could argue this speaks a lot about the standard of English education in the schools in the Stoke-on-Trent area, from where the vast majority of Towers staff are drawn from!
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Hotel bookings are run by Holiday Extras Limited, don’t think they are based in Staffordshire.
 
The Invitation has another couple of typos that I’ve found in various people’s photos.

Firstly, the restrictions sign says that it’s an “intense, audio-lead horror experience”:
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(Source: TowersStreet Facebook)
If I’m being really pedantic, I also notice that they used a comma instead of a semicolon where it says “Special effects including, strobe lighting, low lighting levels, artificial fog, haze and theatrical makeup”, and I feel like “This attraction is designed to scare; This attraction is recommended for those aged 12+” isn’t 100% correct either in terms of the capitalisation of the second This after the semicolon. I apologise, as I know I’m probably being really pedantic there and I’m not even 100% sure that those bits of grammar are incorrect, but they were just things I noticed.

Secondly, the promo sign says “Buy your tickets for all four or our scare attractions here!”:
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(Source: Theme Park Guide (https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https://live.themeparkguide.biz/?live=SF22&h=AT19ceVSvlk3mHtYHvGVTKpA5RCuct-R0yN_lcILowppXSabQh42MyMV3JZfB5hJK2HLk_D5YH4mxQ8z8c117b1cpdGdckP8ki6O_MAC-n1DS-pGwWJTVeCpEAxKt2c&s=1))
 
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Matt N said:
If I’m being really pedantic, I also notice that they used a comma instead of a semicolon where it says “Special effects including, strobe lighting, low lighting levels, artificial fog, haze and theatrical makeup”, and I feel like “This attraction is designed to scare; This attraction is recommended for those aged 12+” isn’t 100% correct either in terms of the capitalisation of the second This after the semicolon. I apologise, as I know I’m probably being really pedantic there and I’m not even 100% sure that those bits of grammar are incorrect, but they were just things I noticed.
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This one seems to really confuse people. You don't actually need any punctuation after "including", not sure why people always feel the need to stick something in there.

Yeah the other sentence with the semicolon reads abominably, should just be "This attraction is designed to scare and is recommended for...". It's almost like they'd had it as a bulleted list and then suddenly realised very late into production that they'd run out of space and had to mash it into one sentence.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
This one seems to really confuse people. You don't actually need any punctuation after "including", not sure why people always feel the need to stick something in there.
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I never actually thought of this, but come to think of it, I guess it’s true. That sentence doesn’t really need any punctuation, but if I were putting any piece of punctuation in there, I’d probably put a semicolon instead of a comma, personally.
Matt N said:
Secondly, the promo sign says “Buy your tickets for all four or our scare attractions here!”:
106_2022-10-071665163014.4114778738369.jpg

(Source: Theme Park Guide (https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https://live.themeparkguide.biz/?live=SF22&h=AT19ceVSvlk3mHtYHvGVTKpA5RCuct-R0yN_lcILowppXSabQh42MyMV3JZfB5hJK2HLk_D5YH4mxQ8z8c117b1cpdGdckP8ki6O_MAC-n1DS-pGwWJTVeCpEAxKt2c&s=1))
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On another note, this typo appears to have been repeated on the Altonville Mine Tours version of the same sign according to TPW’s Scarefest vlog.
 
Matt N said:
I never actually thought of this, but come to think of it, I guess it’s true. That sentence doesn’t really need any punctuation, but if I were putting any piece of punctuation in there, I’d probably put a semicolon instead of a comma, personally.
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It shouldn't have any punctuation. If you really feel the need for something there, then a colon is probably most appropriate. But probably only if the list were set off with bullet points or something.

I think @AstroDan is right though, people just don't care about this stuff - certainly not the content producers at Merlin Ents and probably not a lot of the people that read it either. Kind of glad I'm no longer a proofreader by profession, it would be easy to feel completely redundant in modern society.
 
I notice 3:
  • Ride Access Pass isn’t capitalised in the second bullet point.
  • Chest restriction is listed as 56cm rather than 56 inches.
  • The “in the unlikely event of an evacuation” bullet point is listed twice.
Have I missed any?
 
They desperately need a copy team within their marketing department.

I can oversee errors in quick ‘out of order’ signage made by an ops team, however marketing collateral and/or marketing communications with errors in should be picked up in amends rounds, approval rounds or by a copy team.

Spelling and grammatical errors have a really big impact on brand image, reputation, consideration and trust. These errors really cheapen the brand image in my opinion.
 
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