By Osagie Alonge
A tweet from news wire agency Associated Press caused a stir on social network Twitter today, July 23, 2014, after it confused many to believe yet another plane had crashed.
AP sent out the tweet informing the world that a Dutch military plane carrying bodies from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (which was shot down at the Russia-Ukraine border on July 17, 2014) had landed Eindhoven, Netherlands but kind of sent out the message the wrong way (thanks to bad punctuation skills).
‘BREAKING: Dutch military plane carrying bodies from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash lands in Eindhoven‘, it read, receiving hundreds of replies from people around the world, accusing the news wire agency of misinforming them.
‘Mess up grammar on the net & may God have mercy on your soul‘, a comment read. ‘Punctuation and phrasing is very, very important. @AP was just reminded of this‘, another read.
AP however noticed the error and immediately sent out an update. ‘CLARIFIES: Dutch military plane carrying Malaysia Airlines bodies lands in Eindhoven‘, it tweeted.
Commas – Small but mighty…
