There are two types of people in this world... the type of people who will call you out on your typo's, and the type of people who let it slide.
I fall into the latter category. I figure we are all human, and everyone makes mistakes... And at the end of the day, how is it going to change anything if you make the person feel bad by pointing out his/her error? I mean yes if you are proofreading, by all means, point out the typos, shout them from the rooftops... but in my opinion, if you tell someone after the fact, when something is already published/ sent out, its annoying as hell. I know I shouldn't take it personally, and yes, when I find my own typos in blogs, or whatever I do go back and correct them... and if it is something blatantly wrong, like a date of an event, then yes, I would like to know. But it's the people who e-mail you at 6AM to tell you that in the last newsletter you mis-used an apostrophe, that make you want to light their lawn on fire.... I mean really, does it matter that much?
I know that as a writer I should be good a grammar, and spelling, and all that jazz, but I'm not. I am grammatically challenged, and the biggest tragedy of my technological life was when I got a phone with a full keyboard and I could no longer use T9... It was one large step backwards in my vocabulary... because I know there are things that I often say out loud that I couldn't spell even if I tried... I understand this is a weakness... and considering that a large part of my job is advertising and promoting, I know this is something that I need to work on... but when you have someone else proofread your work, and they don't catch the error either, I figure there are worse things... try telling that to the people who read my work newsletter... I kid you not, it was out in cyberspace for 5 minutes, and I had 5 snarky and uppity e-mails telling me about my typos... One large, the other, not so much. And so I corrected the date error, and re-sent the e-mail.... again I was distracted, and irritated by the typo, so I forgot to change the actual title of the newsletter... and another 5 minutes go by, and I get a bunch of concerned e-mails saying "did you know we got two newsletters?" .... Maybe it is just my personality, or maybe it is just my priorities, but who are these people who actually have the time/ feel the need to call you out on stuff like this? I mean we have all found typos in books, websites, newsletters whatever... and I know there are people out there who secretly nit-pick stuff like this (you know who you are), But who actually takes the time to write a snarky e-mail to inform you that you have mis-used an apostrophe?
I know I shouldn't take it personally... It's not like any of the e-mails were addressed to me specifically... and its not like everyone knows that it is my fault, my typo etc... (besides the fact that my boss often makes sure that people know I am the one writing the newsletter) and I know the snarky e-mails are not directed at me personally...and yet I take it personally. I'm sure I add some inflection to the e-mails that maybe isn't there, and maybe they seem more malicious than they were meant to be... But I am constantly wondering why we live in a society that seems to reinforce the instinct to put other people down so we feel better about ourselves. Yes, I have seen blatant typos in all sorts of publications, but I have never once considered telling the person about it... I mean really, what would it help... "Oh I loved your book, but I did notice the typo on page 37" or "hey, I got your last newsletter... FYI you forgot to delete the block that says "delete this block before sending out". I always just figure that the person will realize his/her error eventually, and probably feel like a real idiot, so why do I need to point it out and make them feel worse? At least when you find your own typos and no one has said anything you can pretend that you are the only one who caught it. You can appease your embarrassment a little bit by thinking "well no one called me out on it, so its not as big of a deal" ... and for crying out loud people, if you are going to tell someone about a typo, at least don't be a completely smug jack-ass about it. Maybe it is just a personal bias of mine, but is there anything more annoying than someone who is being condescending to you about your grammar? It's not like I was using a double negative, or a run-on sentence, or some other terrible grammatical sin... I mis-used an apostrophe... which is probably one of the most common grammatical flubs you can make! And yet multiple people out there felt the overwhelming need crush my spirit and nit-pick a newsletter for a small garden shop.
It's frustrating... frustrating because I feel like an idiot, but also because I cannot defend myself. It's not like I can reply to the e-mails and say "well even though we had multiple people proof-reading, we still make mistakes" or "Well if writing the newsletter was my only job, then maybe I would care, but considering the other things I have on my plate right now, your helpful comment just makes me want to delete you from our mailing list, and then punch you in the face" (though I do repeat this mentally, and it makes me feel slightly better).
I know there are people out there who disagree... and that is fine. But please, no need to send me an e-mail or comment about how wrong I am. Please do me a favor, and do something more productive with your time. Feel free to harbor a moment of smugness, and revel in the fact that your grammar is better than mine, and move on. No need to put down my grammatical usage to make yourself feel better... I know its not my forte, and probably never will be, and I'm perfectly ok with that. So if you find any blatant typos in this, well you can just kiss my ass.
I fall into the latter category. I figure we are all human, and everyone makes mistakes... And at the end of the day, how is it going to change anything if you make the person feel bad by pointing out his/her error? I mean yes if you are proofreading, by all means, point out the typos, shout them from the rooftops... but in my opinion, if you tell someone after the fact, when something is already published/ sent out, its annoying as hell. I know I shouldn't take it personally, and yes, when I find my own typos in blogs, or whatever I do go back and correct them... and if it is something blatantly wrong, like a date of an event, then yes, I would like to know. But it's the people who e-mail you at 6AM to tell you that in the last newsletter you mis-used an apostrophe, that make you want to light their lawn on fire.... I mean really, does it matter that much?
I know that as a writer I should be good a grammar, and spelling, and all that jazz, but I'm not. I am grammatically challenged, and the biggest tragedy of my technological life was when I got a phone with a full keyboard and I could no longer use T9... It was one large step backwards in my vocabulary... because I know there are things that I often say out loud that I couldn't spell even if I tried... I understand this is a weakness... and considering that a large part of my job is advertising and promoting, I know this is something that I need to work on... but when you have someone else proofread your work, and they don't catch the error either, I figure there are worse things... try telling that to the people who read my work newsletter... I kid you not, it was out in cyberspace for 5 minutes, and I had 5 snarky and uppity e-mails telling me about my typos... One large, the other, not so much. And so I corrected the date error, and re-sent the e-mail.... again I was distracted, and irritated by the typo, so I forgot to change the actual title of the newsletter... and another 5 minutes go by, and I get a bunch of concerned e-mails saying "did you know we got two newsletters?" .... Maybe it is just my personality, or maybe it is just my priorities, but who are these people who actually have the time/ feel the need to call you out on stuff like this? I mean we have all found typos in books, websites, newsletters whatever... and I know there are people out there who secretly nit-pick stuff like this (you know who you are), But who actually takes the time to write a snarky e-mail to inform you that you have mis-used an apostrophe?
I know I shouldn't take it personally... It's not like any of the e-mails were addressed to me specifically... and its not like everyone knows that it is my fault, my typo etc... (besides the fact that my boss often makes sure that people know I am the one writing the newsletter) and I know the snarky e-mails are not directed at me personally...and yet I take it personally. I'm sure I add some inflection to the e-mails that maybe isn't there, and maybe they seem more malicious than they were meant to be... But I am constantly wondering why we live in a society that seems to reinforce the instinct to put other people down so we feel better about ourselves. Yes, I have seen blatant typos in all sorts of publications, but I have never once considered telling the person about it... I mean really, what would it help... "Oh I loved your book, but I did notice the typo on page 37" or "hey, I got your last newsletter... FYI you forgot to delete the block that says "delete this block before sending out". I always just figure that the person will realize his/her error eventually, and probably feel like a real idiot, so why do I need to point it out and make them feel worse? At least when you find your own typos and no one has said anything you can pretend that you are the only one who caught it. You can appease your embarrassment a little bit by thinking "well no one called me out on it, so its not as big of a deal" ... and for crying out loud people, if you are going to tell someone about a typo, at least don't be a completely smug jack-ass about it. Maybe it is just a personal bias of mine, but is there anything more annoying than someone who is being condescending to you about your grammar? It's not like I was using a double negative, or a run-on sentence, or some other terrible grammatical sin... I mis-used an apostrophe... which is probably one of the most common grammatical flubs you can make! And yet multiple people out there felt the overwhelming need crush my spirit and nit-pick a newsletter for a small garden shop.
It's frustrating... frustrating because I feel like an idiot, but also because I cannot defend myself. It's not like I can reply to the e-mails and say "well even though we had multiple people proof-reading, we still make mistakes" or "Well if writing the newsletter was my only job, then maybe I would care, but considering the other things I have on my plate right now, your helpful comment just makes me want to delete you from our mailing list, and then punch you in the face" (though I do repeat this mentally, and it makes me feel slightly better).
I know there are people out there who disagree... and that is fine. But please, no need to send me an e-mail or comment about how wrong I am. Please do me a favor, and do something more productive with your time. Feel free to harbor a moment of smugness, and revel in the fact that your grammar is better than mine, and move on. No need to put down my grammatical usage to make yourself feel better... I know its not my forte, and probably never will be, and I'm perfectly ok with that. So if you find any blatant typos in this, well you can just kiss my ass.
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