I am haunted daily by the ghosts and possibilities of typos.
In the age of printing, typographical errors were a constant part of my early career. I was a sub-editor whose job was to edit articles for clarity, readability, and eliminate grammatical errors. It was a shame to let a mistake slip.
Evidence of my incompetence would be enshrined in the next day’s paper for millions of readers to scoff at – in addition to guaranteeing a humiliating mention in the editor’s daily postmortem.
Print publications had to employ proofreaders banks in order to avoid typos. Even that couldn’t guarantee perfectionism. When words appeared on the page with misplaced punctuation or missing letters, they wwere so obviously the design of a malign spirit, they would be explained away as being “printer’s devils”.
Digital publishing and computer technology have made it easier. Site errors can be fixed as soon as possible. Even before articles are published, writing programs come with functions that highlight spelling mistakes – and sometimes correct them automatically.
Sometimes this causes unexpected laughter. They’re all around, not just on the sign above that I encountered at a hotel buffet recently. The sub-editor’s curse is to have typos jump out at me from everywhere – except the pieces I’m editing.
#CES2023 #autocorrect #funny #typos pic.twitter.com/YNZrNyeBsZ
— Jim Harris #CES2023 (@JimHarris) December 24, 2022
Spot the hilarious typo pic.twitter.com/z7Ek6lCW7U
— Helen Ingram (@drhingram) March 27, 2021
