The Etiquette of Typo Calling

April 7^th 2015 Sally Ormond Coping with mistakes, dealing with typos, errors in content, how to handle mistakes, typos

Proofreading

You’ve settled down for a coffee break.

Being the diligent, dedicated worker that you are, you’ve decided to spend your 15 minutes reading up on a subject that you’re working on at the moment.

After a quick Google search, you’ve found an article that looks as though it will tell you everything you need to know.

As you settle down the writing engages you, and you lose yourself in it completely, soaking up the knowledge from the screen.

Just as you reach the final paragraph, you notice a typo. It’s nothing catastrophic; there’s a letter missing. It doesn’t detract from the information, but it stands out to you.

What do you do?

Skip over it; it’s not hurting anyone
Slam your mug down in disgust and state you’ll never read any of their work again
Send a DM tweet to bring their attention to the mistake
Leave a caustic/sarcastic comment at the end of their blog post

We are all human

Mistakes shouldn’t happen, but they do.

At times it doesn’t matter how often you read through something, errors will slip through.

Why?

Because you’re human.

Can you imagine a world where no one makes mistakes?

Me neither.

So, getting back to the quandary, what should you do?

As a writer, I make mistakes (shock horror!). I try not to, but now and then one will slip through.

Personally, I welcome a DM tweet to let me know so I can go back and correct it. I see it as something positive. After all, it means that someone has liked my writing enough to read the entire article and that they care enough to let me know there’s a typo – that’s pretty special.

I’ve also had smart arses that have left curt comments on my blog when they’ve found an error. Right, like they’ve never made a mistake in their life. My response is a sweet “why thank you so much for pointing that out to me”, but they don’t put themselves in a good light.

You see there are various ways of doing things.

Some decisions will show you as caring and thoughtful, others as someone who loves to revel in the mistakes of others like some God that never gets anything wrong.

Next time you come across a typo stop and think. How would you like to be treated? Everyone makes mistakes – EVERYONE – just remember that.

Why have I written this post?

I’ve already admitted to making the odd mistake now and then. This post is in response to a lovely lady (and friend) who spotted a missing ‘t’ in a recent post of mine. She was kind enough to DM me so I could correct it.

If I’m feeling particularly mischievous, I’ll slip in a deliberate typo just to see if anyone notices.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Author – Sally Ormond, Briar Copywriting Ltd