3 CommentsA typo is a mistake in typesetting or in the typing process. It’s typically due to human error and does not necessarily include spelling errors. In this article, however, I am lumping typos and spelling errors together because, as writers, if we are not good spellers, chances are we will miss typos when rereading our work.
Typos drive me crazy. They really bother me. I do not care to dive into the psychology behind my frustration, and I’m sure I make my fair share, but I also make a point of reading my work a few times before sending it out. Even emails. I was delighted to read a discussion on this subject in a recent Op-ed piece in the New York Times, called, “The Price of Typos,” by Virginia Hefferson, particularly as it relates to the digital era.
As the compiler and editor of two anthologies, Writers and Their Notebooks, and Writers on the Edge: 22 Writers Speak on Addiction and Dependency (due out in 2012) I am intrigued by various writers’ spelling skills—or lack thereof. According to Hefferson, there is no pattern; Nabakov was a great speller and Fitzgerald was not. Instead of just saying some people are only talented one way or another, Hefferson analyzes the personality of the good and bad speller. She purports that bad spellers tend to see through the words he or she encounters, straight to the things, characters, ideas, images an emotions they conjure, thus they tend to be good at reportage. While good spellers tend to see language as a system and are more often than not, drawn to wordplay and genres like poetry. Since I am a poet who loves Scrabble and crossword puzzles and who is obsessed with the correct spelling of words, I was drawn to this concept.
For poor spellers, there are numerous web sites, which offer suggestions on how to improve one’s spelling. Most of the recommendations include doing more reading and writing, two things writers tend to do on a regular basis. First, if you are a journal keeper it is suggested that you find new ways to use old and new words; second, whenever you finish your writing whether in a journal, on a pad or on the computer, make sure to check for mistakes. It is hoped that as time passes, you should find fewer words to correct.
With the new flood of digital media, the increased amount of typos and spelling errors has become a large issue. “The reason for this seems two-fold: work is published more quickly with less attentiveness is paid towards editing and, when cutbacks in the publishing houses began happening, those who first lost their jobs were the copyeditors and proofreaders—those typically responsible for catching misspelled words and typos. It just seems as if publishers, small, medium and large have become less vigilant about editing and spelling. Rushing to publish and overlooking glaring typos may have become part of the new economics of traditional publishing,” concludes Hefferson.
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I have to say that there’s something ironic about that last quote from Hefferson’s piece because there’s a rather glaring grammatical error. I read it a couple of times because it didn’t make sense to me the first time and it wasn’t until I backtracked I was able to find the problem.
My children and I call them pytos and have done so for years. Our amusing way of pointing out one another’s careless mistakes. We know better, usually, although we all seem to have a word or two we can never quite remember how to spell correctly. For me, “exaggerate” is a stumbling block and I have to think before I type.
Google Chrome is a good web browser to use for those with weak spelling skills. As with most word processing programs, it puts a red squiggly line under the pyto. Also, as with most processing programs, it is not infallible. But then, neither are we humans.
Especially after reading the last paragraph, I feel lucky to have had such good copyeditors for my book projects. The copyeditor for my creative writing textbook at Bedford/St. Martin’s was particularly careful and insightful. She was fierce in her attention to every last comma. So–all is not lost!
So interesting. I’m a fiction writer and definitely interested in reportage, but I’m also fairly OCD when it comes to the cleanliness of prose (though I’ve certainly reread emails in my “sent” folder and occasionally cringed).