This appeared next to the lifts in the building where I live. Now, do you think it's my duty to tell Sino property management that they have misspelled the word 'peddler' and that it should be 'paddler' instead? The first time I saw it, I was amused. However, now I find it quite annoying. If I popped down to the property management will they find me obnoxious for pointing out their mistake? The consequences of me telling them of their error is that they will have to take down every poster in all the buildings and put new ones up again. I should just mind my own business.
Last week, I was at Pacific Coffee and they usually have a quote of the week written on their chalk board. Little Miss Stickler here pointed out the spelling mistake of the word 'gifed' instead of 'gifted' and expected a free cup of tea but got a confused look instead. I don't think the staff at Pacific Coffee care about spelling. They would've had to use a chair to correct the error and they don't get paid enough by the hour to correct spelling mistakes. I plan to go down this week to check whether or not they have corrected the mistake because that's the kind of person I am.
I wonder if I have it in me to sell a dragon boat? Buy 17 oars, get one free!
Last week, I was at Pacific Coffee and they usually have a quote of the week written on their chalk board. Little Miss Stickler here pointed out the spelling mistake of the word 'gifed' instead of 'gifted' and expected a free cup of tea but got a confused look instead. I don't think the staff at Pacific Coffee care about spelling. They would've had to use a chair to correct the error and they don't get paid enough by the hour to correct spelling mistakes. I plan to go down this week to check whether or not they have corrected the mistake because that's the kind of person I am.
I wonder if I have it in me to sell a dragon boat? Buy 17 oars, get one free!
7 comments:
Hi Wilda
the world needs more editors!
Guess what, I got a copy of my neighbours the Yamadas for 10 bucks yesterday
cheers
Jo
jojo: It's very funny! Especially the scooter chasing scene.
I was reading through your post and somehow I thought of this article that Michael Kinsley wrote on last week´s TIME mag. Because you´re an editor I thought it would be funny to leave the link and a quote here :P
The title is: "Writers Rule! Whtevr u say, Mike, but this hedlin didnt get editd and thts why it readz like this" (obviously by writers he is not referring to the pacific coffee staff!)
Here´s a quote:
"Writers are sensitive souls--generally intelligent and hardworking but easily bruised. Treat them right, though, and you will be rewarded. Writers shape words into luminous sentences and the sentences into exquisitely crafted paragraphs. They weave the paragraphs together into a near perfect article, essay or review. Then their writing--their baby--is ripped untimely from their computers (well, maybe only a couple of weeks overdue) and turned over to editors. These are idiots, most of them, and brutes, with tin ears, the aesthetic sensitivity of insects, deeply held erroneous beliefs about your topic and a maddening conviction that any article, no matter how eloquent or profound or already cut to the bone, can be improved by losing an additional 100 words."
If u want to check out the rest you can find it here:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1729711,00.html
Correction:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1729711,00.html
Wilda! I'm with you all the way, my Aussie boss (who lives in Oz, nice perk of the job) emailed me yesterday, talking about "photoes" and "sence" among other things. That's just the spelling; the grammar is worse! I wonder, how did she ever teach English? And will she fire me if I send it back to her with red pen corrections?
joao: A humorous article and very well written. I liked the last part of the article more though.
let me firstly say that these days I'm no longer a working editor and I consider myself more as a writer. I rarely proofread my blog postings because I write to relax and express rage not to win the Nobel prize for literature. But - and there's always a but - I have to defend all the editors out there. the many pieces of crap that I received during my most recent tenure as editor should have been set on alight. I would either send it back for a complete re-write or stay back late at work and edited every single sentence. I mostly did the latter. As for bruising egos, all of my writers were lawyers. Lawyers don't seem to understand that just because they are lawyers, it doesn't mean they can write. I know, I'm a lawyer. Have you ever fought over a placement of an incorrect comma? It's not pleasant but I did put up a good fight. It's like I don't have anything better to do like rewrite entire manuscripts. I don't miss editing but now I am correcting my students' essays and I don't have to explain why there are so many red lines on the page. I have a pencil case I carry around with me everywhere and in it there are 4 red pens. Once and editor, always and editor. I will be buried with red pens.
fuzchan: tracking changes, baby, tracking changes. ;)
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