Typos. They’re freaking everywhere. And I can’t help but notice them.
My husband and I used to go to a restaurant where they had “shimp scampi” on the menu. Now, I love shrimp... but because of that typo, I refused to order it. And we don’t go to that restaurant anymore. Not because of the typo... because we moved away. But still.
Yet, when you point out typos, you wind up looking like the asshole and not the person MAKING the typo. In one of the business Facebook groups I’m a member of, someone was proudly displaying their new marketing images: complete with an extraneous apostrophe that shouldn’t have been there. When I pointed it out, they quipped that their next marketing image should be that “______ make mistakes.” Um, sure. A simple “thank you for saving me from looking like an idiot to my clients” would have sufficed.
A coworker asked me if I can turn off my editing hat. The short answer is No, but I’ve learned to somewhat ignore the more benign typos I’ve seen in my day-to-day life. Otherwise I would probably go insane.
—Hilary Parry Haggerty
www.hilaryparry.com
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