The most frequent errors at the text level that occur in a brochure or catalog have to do with the number of words that are used and with spelling, grammar and lexical issues.
Text volume
Although we have already commented on it on more than one occasion, in advertising texts it must be brief and concise. You have to get to the point and stop thinking about the same idea. To achieve this, the phrases have to condense as much as possible the message that we want to convey to the audience. The golden rule is not to overwhelm the reader or give him too many elements that can lead to confusion.
It is shown that attention can only be captured between the first three and five seconds. Therefore, when you really want the reader to read the entire diptych or triptych, nothing better than going directly to highlight the main thing about that product and / or service that is being offered, leaving aside other information that is not of interest to you. .
Typing errors
Parallel to the amount of text that we are going to incorporate into the brochures and catalogs that we will end up printing, it is important to pay special attention to spelling, grammar and lexical issues. These are the most common.
1. Spelling level
There is a bad habit of capitalizing the first letter of the year. Spelling is incorrect because it has no logic when it is in the middle of a sentence and it is not the beginning of any or it does not come after a period.
Another common mistake is the incorrect use of abbreviations. The only ones that are allowed are those that correspond to units of measurement or chemical elements since they are subject to the norms of the international system. However, it is customary to write them with a period, when in fact they do not have it.
A common mistake found in many graphic advertising media is the misuse of punctuation marks, for example, both the linguistic and non-linguistic uses of the comma and period. One of the most common examples is to write the hours with a comma when you have to put them with a colon or a period.
2. Grammar level
The most common mistake is not to put the article on the subject, perhaps due to the influence exerted by the English language. It should not be forgotten that the trend in recent years seems to be marked by the increasingly frequent presence of bilingual publications, a trend that is also moving into the advertising field.
It is important to be careful when forming the plurals and especially to make the concordances with the verbs. As a general rule, it never ends well and it is a grammatical fault that should always be avoided.
3. Lexical level
It is important not to fall into the use of additional Jeri MOS. The same happens with other words such as “snack” or “pack” which in the first case means “aperitif” and in the second, the extra Jeri MOS.
The use of has given way to the creation of new terms that did not exist to date and that advertising has been incorporating. For example, the term “accommodation”, which means the action and effect of accommodating, is being used incorrectly in place of “accommodation”, which would be the correct word in this case.
It is essential, therefore, that when writing the texts there is always a person who understands the subject who can review them before they are considered good and send the brochure or catalog to the press.
