Those itty bitty repetitive copy errors
I try to write these posts as fast as possible, for obvious reasons. But even when I write fast, they take a long time to turn out at a good clip.
But you should see them before I proofread them. Yikes! It’s not easy to be your own writer, editor, and copy-editor at the same time, because the eye gets accustomed to seeing what it expects to see and doesn’t always spot the errors that Spell Check misses (I know; cue the world’s smallest violin).
Writing a blog day after day after day for years and years and years, you discover your signature errors—that is, the ones you tend to make over and over and over, day after day after day. Some are spelling errors; until computers and Spell Check came along, I never realized how poor a speller I was, for the simple reason that for decades I was spelling certain words wrong without anyone ever noticing or telling me. But the errors I’m talking about in this post are the ones in which a person substitutes one actual and correctly-spelled word for another. Spell Check thinks those errors are just peachy-keen.
My personal favorites appear to be “if” for “is” and “thing” for “think.” Both involve the careless and near-reflexive substitution of a single letter that turns one commonly-used word into another. (And by the way, I just caught the fact that, in the previous sentence, I originally typed “My personal favorites appear to me” rather than “appear to be.”) Those are the errors that slip by oh-so-easily, and proofreading can easily miss them.
The most common one that you see even from excellent writers who know their grammar is “it’s” for “its.” The error almost always goes in one direction only, and it seems an odd direction: the addition of an apostrophe where it’s not needed rather than its omission when it’s called for (and of course, I had to check this sentence several times to make sure I’d done it right). I once wrote an entire post on the “it’s/its” problem, in which I offered the following explanation for what’s going on:
Why do we do this? Are we all just stupid! No, no, a thousand times no! We are actually very smart, because we are extrapolating a general rule to include this word, and that is the rule about forming possessives. Usually we do this by adding an apostrophe and an “s,” as you no doubt well know. But with the words “it’s” and “its,” we choose to reserve the apostrophe for the contraction, and that leaves the possessive hanging out there, alone and forlorn and apostropheless.
In this, however, we’re following another rule (are you still with me? or have I already bored you to tears?), that of the possessive personal pronoun: hers, his, theirs, ours, yours, for example. All lack apostrophes. But they’re not confusing, somehow””perhaps because, unlike “its,” they clearly refer to people, and are never given an apostrophe because they never become contractions.
I know the rule very well. I’ve known it since grade school; I had an excellent and traditional education in grammar, involving (among other things) very rigorous sentence-diagramming. But I still violate the rule sometimes through a combination of habit and haste.
Its, OK neo.
I too struggle with this and even after reading it over and correcting several times, may find an error after I’ve posted the comment. Then there’s words I’ve actually spelled correctly, that my tablet ‘corrects’, that I may fail to catch. And finally, my less than perfect written grammar, exemplified by my overuse of commas.
I know you are a poetry lover, neo, so you should enjoy this little ditty, if you haven’t yet seen it.
Candidate for a Pullet Surprise
by Mark Eckman and Jerrold H. Zar
I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.
Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it’s weigh.
My checker tolled me sew.
A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when eye rime.
Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o’er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.
Bee fore a veiling checker’s
Hour spelling mite decline,
And if we’re lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.
Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
Their are know fault’s with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.
Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped word’s fare as hear.
To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw’s are knot aloud.
Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too pleas.
I usually let the minor errors pass without comment so that I don’t become too much of a pest. That said, you do a much better job than a lot of other bloggers!
Any time I start typing the words “through”, “though”, or “thorough”, there’s not telling which one I’m going to end up with. “Thought” and “throat” can also get pulled into that vortex.
Spelling Bully:
Yes, you’ve put the fear in me!!
A common error in US publishing is writing “that” when the right word is “than”.
Nick:
Not to mention “not” and “no” 🙂 (see the first sentence of your own comment).
One of the many rules of grammar and spelling discussions is that almost every comment will contain a grammar or spelling error. When I write posts on grammar, I proofread them about ten times. And even then, some are likely to slip by. It’s grammar/spelling karma, or something like that.
Aengelholmare:
I am highly subject to that error, as well.
geokstr:
Cute.
For some reason, reading that has an effect on me somewhat like reading Chaucer with the original spellings.
`Twas billing, and the smithy toes
Did gyre and gamble in the wage:
All missy were the brogues,
And the mime rats outrage.
“Beware the Jabber Wick, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujube bird, and shun
The furious Bender Snatch!”
He took his viral sword in hand:
Long time the Manxwomen foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tutu tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in offish thought he stood,
The Jabber Wick, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffing through the tulle wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The viral blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And, has thou slain the Jabber Wick?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O crablouse day! Callow! Allay!’
He chortled in his joy.
`Twas billing, and the smithy toes
Did gyre and gamble in the wage;
All missy were the brogues
And the mime rats outrage.
Although not spellchecking, the following shows another foible of the human brain:
How many F’s does the following passage contain?
Finished files are the result
of years of scientific study
combined with the experience
of years…
The answer is 6. Very few people get it right the firs (or even second time)
“Never thought much of a man who could think of only one way to spell a word.” Mark Twain
“The answer is 6. Very few people get it right the firs (or even second time)”
Or even the spruce time.
Oh how I pine, for (the missing) t.
“Eats, Shoots & Leaves” is the book you want to read.
Or cut straight to the punch line.
http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/hanimals11.html
I can count on a good crop of “tehs” every year.
I spend FAR more time editing my inconsequential and inane comments than actually writing them.
And every damn time I hit Submit after gawd-only-knows-how-many-previews, is right when I notice the most glaring errors.
And that’s just the grammar (because gawd knows the lack of rhetorical acuity is worse, sigh).
…let alone those that are noticed by others. I’m sure others are better at seeing my mistakes than me. But too polite to say anything. But are laughing. I hear the laughter.
I’m happy if they get the words lose and loose correct.