That tightening of the gut, when you realise who you're dealing with...

Unfortunately, I cannot give too much away about this error. The erroneous document was presented before me as part of my day-job and represented a confidential contract between my employer and a large computer company - we'll call them Bloggs, in order to protect their anonymity.

In addition, the original document was sent by fax and digitised via a poor digital camera, so you will be lucky if you can even read it. Where there is a grey blob, I have erased the name of the company from the page. They clearly like seeing their name in print!

There are two errors. The first is in the second line of clause "j", just before the blob - the word should be "of" and they have put "if". The second error is in clause "k", third line, just after the blob, where they placed the word "it's" in place of the possessive pronoun "its".

Normally, I would not bother to tell you about errors which did not relate to the apostrophe. However, in this instance I am shocked to think that a large computer company, like "Bloggs" (a company who, if I told you their real name, you'd immediately recognise) cannot get a simple contract correct. They have managed to make two stupid errors in a very small space. They know how to use the possessive pronoun "its" - they've used it correctly in other places in the above excerpt - the problem is that they did not bother to proof read this legal document.

You are witnessing the decline of business standards.

8 May 2001
Ashley Frieze