Monday, July 25, 2011

Getting Help For My Chronic Typo Problem From Betty Jo Bouvier & Elsie Hotpepper

I don't think anyone is immune to the occasional typographical error. However, my personal trend line for typos seems to have the typo incidents increasing.

Just minutes ago I caught a real bad one that totally changed the meaning of the sentence...

An intervention where the parents are shown who to properly feed their kids.

I know I don't catch all my typos. I almost did not catch the above one.

The word "how" seems to be a frequent pitfall for me. When intending to type "how" I have typed "who", "would" and "wood".

Awhile back I saw a memorable typo related line on the Connie Dees Facebook page, saying, "THEY'RE going THERE with THEIR friends. It's called grammar, use it."

Grammar errors are a different woe than typos. However, what may appear to be a grammar error might actually be a typo. I know I've quickly typed "your" when I mean "you're" a time or two. Quickly catching the error.

I have experienced people who do not understand that "your" is a possessive pronoun and that "you" and "are" can be contracted as "you're". When these types type "Your driving me crazy" it is not a typo, it is a grammar error born of ignorance or laziness or both.

Wikipedia has an article titled "Typographical error." The first paragraph of the Wikipedia article is pretty much a definition of typos...

A typographical error (often shortened to typo) is a mistake made in, originally, the manual type-setting (typography) of printed material, or more recently, the typing process. The term includes errors due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger, but usually excludes errors of ignorance, such as spelling errors. Before the arrival of printing, the "copyist's mistake" or "scribal error" was the equivalent for manuscripts. Most typos involve simple duplication, omission, transposition, or substitution of a small number of characters.

When I have a typo escape my attention, making it to the point of being read by others, I have a few kind people who take pity on my mistakes and point them out to me. Betty Jo Bouvier and Elsie Hotpepper are both quite helpful in the typo spotting department.

UPDATE: I thought I'd done a careful job of proofreading this particular blogging to make sure there were no typos. However. Elsie Hotpepper found a typo. I'd typed "Grammar errors a different woe than typos." I was missing a word, with that word being "are".  I really do not like my chronic typo woe.

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