Unfortunately, human beings in my field get publicly called on the carpet when our mistakes show up in print. For example, Vanity Fair delighted in pointing out the editing error in a recent Time Inc. ad for Motto.
Along those same lines, I doubt that anyone at Vanity Fair will roll over dead when I point out, without glee, that there's a different kind of typo in their snarky story:
In addition to Motto, the company has been experimenting with other new ventures, such as a collaboration with Kobe Bryant, entitled “Dear Basketball,” to be distributed on Sports Illustrated digital properties.
As I understand the rules of the road*, the collaboration isn't entitled to anything. It's titled. And yet the world rolls on.
I'm highlighting the Vanity Fair error to make a point -- not point a finger. We all make mistakes. The question is: Do we learn from them?
P.S. Thanks to Vanessa for this and a zillion other blog ideas!
*Writing about typos makes a writer twitch. I did double-check this rule in the AP Stylebook, in case you wondered. And I proofread this post about a million times and I'm still terrified you're going to find a typo.
2 comments:
Amen, sister. It (proofreading) never seems to be enough. I'm one of those people that can find the three typos in any published work and not catch the five in my own, even after a couple of dozen edits. I recently ordered new checks so they would have my new address. I spelled the name of my bank wrong. (The routing number is correct, so I'll probably leave it. But at the rate I use checks... I don't know how long I can handle looking at that. ... Sigh.)
We've all been there! I used to work on a magazine. Others were excited when we finally got the printed piece back; I dreaded it. I knew that the moment I opened it up, I'd see the typos I had missed in weeks of work.
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