Typos are universal in published work. There are few times I have read an entire novel and not seen at least one misused comma, misspelled word ("bass" for "base," for example), etc. May Day has a couple, too. For the most part, typos are not distracting, especially if the novel is otherwise well-written, but sometimes they're funny. I just came across the following typo in an online mystery writing ezine, and it shows the power of little words ("as," in this case):
"The writing industry is often as difficult to penetrate as an emerging writer."
It makes us new writers sound like a pretty frigid lot, no? The ezine is otherwise fantastic, and I emailed them a heads up about the typo. The editor responded with this email, which made me giggle:
"I choose to blame my husband completely. He also put in a short story, when a cop was calling for paramedics after his partner was shot, 'Tell them to hurray.' Ahhh, typos."
As a college writing instructor for ten years, I've also seen some my share of student typos, like the paper calling for a ban on youth in Asia in hospitals, and the essay saying we needed to stop taking our rights for granite. Technically, those may be biffos and not typos because they weren't accidental. This is a good time to plug reading. Reading makes people smart.
I disagree. I'm currently serving on the editorial board of a literary journal and have been appalled at the manuscripts that have been coming in. And I'm not just talking about the writing. I mean egregious spelling errors.
ReplyDeleteIf one thing has been drilled into my head, it's that you need to present yourself professionally when submitting your work. Flawless cover letter, not a typo in sight for the manuscript. Will some freebie intern screw it up later when they publish your work and reset the work with typos galore? Sure. But at least it doesn't reflect on you and your professionalism.
As soon as I hit three typos in a manuscript, I put it down. Even if the writing is fabulous, I have to say, "What you are telling me is that you have no respect for your writing."
"Typos are not distracting?" Sorry, but as the delegate from the anal-retentive party, I have to disagree. If you screw up something on your blog, fine, that's your business. If you write your best friend in college an e-mail and said you had a really good tim last week, okey dokey. But don't let that kind of sloppiness invade your professional work.
How did I get up here and when did they start making soap boxes again?
Brian, honey -- you forgot that the comment is supposed to be shorter than the blog post. Come back down and let me get you a hot chocolate.
ReplyDeleteJess -- Great post. I think I'm going to post that sentence by my computer as a reminder to not be frigid.