I am a freshman living in Unit 3, so Cal sweatshirts, T-shirts and water bottles are part of my daily life. Walking down Telegraph on my way to campus, I see all kinds of spirit wear on display. Usually, the clothes I see on my way to class and around campus fill me with pride for my school and my community. However, one slogan that I’ve recently come across has made the copy editor inside me frustrated, to say the least.
Unfortunately, the manufacturers of this sweatshirt have let the treacherous apostrophe get the better of their product. Whereas all other Berkeley slogans read “Go Bears,” this slogan, when translated from symbols to letters in my head, reads “Go Bear’s.” As I have noticed on peer forums like Facebook, this kind of mistake is common in communication efforts today. Words meant to be plural (bears) become possessive (bear’s). However, I would have hoped that before producing a product in mass quantities, one would send the plans to a proofreader. Attempting to excuse this error, I have come to the conclusion that maybe (hopefully) the producers of this sweatshirt knew they were making a mistake and decided to ignore the grammar of the situation in the hopes of improving the aesthetics of the design. But even this excuse is not enough for me, as I believe proper grammar is one of the most appealing design elements of all.