I Shouldn't Be So Judgmental...Of Typos

 I posted a picture last week of a sign on a motel. It was missing a letter and that struck me as funny. I snapped a couple of pictures and posted one, complete with a clever (to me...) little caption. 

Maybe I shouldn't have.

I mean, it's really just a typo, except of it being a misspelled word on a page, it's an incomplete word on a sign. Sort of the same thing.

I write a blog post every day. I've published a couple of books and have several short stories out there for all to see. And I'm prone to typos. There may even be typos in this post when it's all said and done. 

Typos are just mistakes. Some have bigger impact than others, of course. There's knock on self-published stories, because they--usually--aren't professionally edited or proofed, and because of that, those in the "approved" publishing world look down on them, and not just the books, but the authors as well. However, I have found typos on books published by established houses before. No one's really immunized from it, or very few, anyway.

I guess it's like taking the beam out of my own eye before I start pointing out the typos in other people's eyes...

Or motel signs that elcome you.

Typos...Does Anyone Even Care?

"Am I reading that right?" I asked my wife as we waited for The X-Files to begin.  I showed my wife the front page of Yahoo.

"Yeah, you're right," she said. On Yahoo's front page I learned there were 46 times that rich kids showed off to much on Snap Chat. I wonder who (or what...) this "Much" is? And, I also wonder, if this "Much" enjoyed watching rich kids show off.

Back in high school I had an English teacher, Mr. Cook. Mr. Cook was amazing. He would tell his students stories, stories of his life, his adventures. Those are the kind of things we remember. And I remember him saying one time that as a younger man he worked in the H.R. department of a company. This company hired teenagers for summer jobs. He told us that if the handwriting on the application was bad, he tossed it into the garbage. I don't know why but I've never forgotten that story.

Which leads me to, not necessarily handwriting, but spelling. I work with the public and have done so for almost thirty years. I've processed applications and reviews during that time and to say that we take spelling seriously is a joke. I should say at this point that I am not the best speller. Many, many times my wife has found typos in my blog posts and other writings, so part of this rant is directed squarely at me.

I read information from the public every day, but I also read information from co-workers, college educated co-workers and sometimes I have no idea what they're trying to say; their spelling is so bad. We're not talking about handwriting, but their typing skills. It's sad and there doesn't appear to be any push to try and fix it.

I saw the typo on the front page of Yahoo tonight and I wondered if anyone saw it, or worse, if anyone thought it was wrong. I know for one thing, if Mr. Cook were alive to see it, he would have thrown it in the trash.