My New Favorite Typo

DWill · Sat Aug 20, 2011 10:31 pm

I like to note typos--doesn't Leno or Letterman have a segment on this? My new favorite comes from a scholarly book on the Declaration of Independence. In Gary Will's article we find the following sentence: "He [Jefferson] had a low regard for Geek metaphysicians in general and for Aristotle's politics in particular."

Saffron · Wed Aug 24, 2011 5:54 am


	DWill wrote: I like to note typos--doesn't Leno or Letterman have a segment on this? My new favorite comes from a scholarly book on the Declaration of Independence. In Gary Will's article we find the following sentence: "He [Jefferson] had a low regard for Geek metaphysicians in general and for Aristotle's politics in particular."

I had to read this sentence many times before I found the typo. One, I am not a very good proof reader and two, our brains are set-up to fill in the missing pieces (this was a good example of how our brains can lead us astray) - mine supplied the missing r. Interestingly, Google is also set-up to correct or fill in the missing or misplaced letters.

DWill · Wed Aug 24, 2011 6:28 am

I think if readers don't focus so much at the word level, they'll miss the typos. Reading more at the sentence level is said to be the most efficient, but it's not what I do. I usually pick up on typos (except the ones that I commit!).

Saffron · Wed Aug 24, 2011 6:41 am


	DWill wrote: I think if readers don't focus so much at the word level, they'll miss the typos. Reading more at the sentence level is said to be the most efficient, but it's not what I do. I usually pick up on typos (except the ones that I commit!).

I had the opposite experience. When I was reading the sentence I could not find the typo. It was when I just looked at each word that I found it, then I am backwards in most things.

R. LeBeaux · Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:57 am

If you are really interested in finding typos, or are considering becoming a proof reader, one of the most effective techniques is to read backwards, starting at the end of the work and reading word-for-word from back to front. This, however, is far from an enjoyable experience, so I wouldn't recommend it for the average reader who is not interested in or engaged in proof reading.

One problem with finding typos (especially if the writer is editing his/her own work), is that once you read through a passage and miss the typos that exist, a mental image of correctness is created and stored in the brain. After that, when reading the same passage over again, the mental image will often block out the errors that were missed initially. This is one reason why most authors have several "readers," who read through their work before it is even submitted to the publisher's editing crew. The more eyes that see the work, the better chance there is of finding typos, because we all read differently, and what one person does not see will be seen by another.

Robert Tulip · Fri Oct 07, 2011 3:04 am


	DWill wrote: [Jefferson] had a low regard for Geek metaphysicians

We would be likely to see this one these days as a Freudian slip, except that there were no Geeks in Jefferson's day. All geeks are metaphysicians aren't they?

Karen Fisher-Alaniz · Tue Nov 08, 2011 8:30 pm

LOL Typos always make me laugh. And my brain seems to always catch them - except in my own writing, probably.

heledd · Wed Nov 09, 2011 7:00 am

You can get some quite funny phrases in the short stories in Gambian newspapers. The level of English is sometimes not very high.
One story stated that 'he was a bad man, and had been an arm robber'. Another that 'Jane came into the sitting room with a toilet tied around her chest half naked. Tunde’s eyes screwed around her body. As he tried to turn his eyes Jane teased him with suggestive words. “Am I not beautiful?
http://www.foroyaa.gm/modules/news/arti ... oryid=7585,

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