(Reuters Life!) - If you're confused about the difference between "it's" and "its", or unsure how to spell "cemetery", you're not alone, and there's plenty of evidence to prove it.
That's the conclusion of two young Americans who took it upon themselves to correct public typos during a three-month road trip across the country. They have written about the trip in a book that exposes deficits in both public education and attention to detail.
"The Great Typo Hunt" describes a nationwide mission by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson, both 30, to rid America of signs that add an extra "n" to "dining", or insist that "shipping" is spelled with one "p".
Deck, a magazine editor, and Herson, a bookseller, drove across the country in the spring of 2008 armed with sharpies, pens and whiteout, correcting spelling, removing surplus apostrophes and untangling subject-verb disagreement on signs outside stores, gas stations, parks and public buildings.
Calling themselves the Typo Eradication Advancement League, they found hundreds of signs indicating the writers either didn't know or didn't care that their spelling, grammar, or punctuation was wrong, and were apparently unaware that their mistakes risked exposing them to public derision or, worse, misunderstanding.
In Atlanta, they found a sign advertising both a "pregnacy" test and a "souviner" of the city to remind tourists of their visit.
In Arizona, a placard urging tourists to bring their "camera's" prompted Deck and Herson to remove the gratuitous apostrophe, leaving the sign with a gap that was at least less offensive than what it replaced.
Sensitive to the charge of being overzealous pedants, they argue that public typos are about more than just a few misplaced punctuation marks. Such errors may lead the reader to get a poor impression of the writer in general, they argue.
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Divine Rapscallion
I've always had the desire to do what these fellows did, but not the cojones to actually do it.
I did once make a poor young clerk redo all the labels on the files he had just reorganized because he had put an apostrophe before every 's' (e.g., Photo's). He gave a nervous laugh and asked if I was joking. No, I told him, we were the communications department and we needed to use proper grammar, even on file folder labels.
~ Rascal
I did once make a poor young clerk redo all the labels on the files he had just reorganized because he had put an apostrophe before every 's' (e.g., Photo's). He gave a nervous laugh and asked if I was joking. No, I told him, we were the communications department and we needed to use proper grammar, even on file folder labels.
~ Rascal
Maggie R
Divine Rapscallion
Well, I probably wouldn't do that now. I've mellowed considerably in the past few years. I'm still a stickler about grammar, but I think I'd let file folders that were only for employee use slide these days. On the other hand, the guy did learn when and when not to use an apostrophe, and he never made the same mistake again.
~ Rascal
~ Rascal
Maggie R
Active Ink Slinger
Quote by roccotool
Such errors may lead the reader to get a poor impression of the writer in general
Hear! Hear!
"Whoa, lady, I only speak two languages, English and bad English." - Korben Dallas, from The Fifth Element
"If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be of learning from experience?" - George Bernard Shaw
"If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be of learning from experience?" - George Bernard Shaw
Active Ink Slinger
I'm probably one of the worst spellers and I don't use the correct grammer either. Gotta love me tho.
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