My friend’s follow-up text was her amused take on what she had previously sent to me. She corrected that text and finished the message with a string of laughing emojis. The message was timely, for I was on my grind, building a column about typos.
I’ve been thinking about those little errors in writing that we call typos. The expression comes from the word typographical, and originally, a “typographical error” meant an error in setting type. Mr. Gutenberg’s invention, the printing press, used moveable type, and those lead slugs were placed in position by hand. When ink was applied to the slugs and paper pressed onto the composition, any errors that were found were called typographical. By the time that the typewriter, word processor and computer were put into the communication stream, the term “typo” had become ingrained in the popular lexicon.
My son told me that Millennials have turned off spellcheck on their devices because they don’t want to be bothered to correct what they send. But, when I was managing a small loan office in the early 1970s, I had to type in loan information on a computer that was linked to the home office. When I was trained in the process, I was warned to read and verify what I had typed before I pressed the key to send the information. This was designed to minimize errors. When the borrower was being granted a $1,000 loan, it was best that the comma be directly after the numeral 1, and not after the first zero. But that was then, and this is now: I find typos in text messages I’ve already sent, and messages that I have received. My neighbor noted in a text that the squirrels “are at the romatoes.” I found a typo in a social media post that I had made. A memory came up of a song I had sung to my first granddaughter. When I finished singing, she asked me “what language was that?” My comment on the memory was “I hoe that I told her I didn’t know.” Spellcheck did not question my use of “hoe” in the place of “hope,” (though it is questioning it, now).
Some of the things that people write are often categorized as typos but are really demonstrations of a poor understanding of proper grammar and spelling. Spellcheck does not scan for context in what we write. If someone writes that they are “to busy” to complete a task, and someone else writes, “too be honest,” spellcheck accepts those errors. On my favorite social media neighborhood page, a poster advertised an item and advised that it was available for “pork pick up,” instead of “porch pick up.” (The administrator of the page got a great chuckle out that.) I recently got a business card from someone whose business, according to the card, was sponsoring “party’s.” Not the plural of party, which is parties, but the possessive of party. I would often catch those kinds of errors when I was a layout and paste-up artist for a printer, but the owner of the print shop refused to correct the client’s copy. I suspect that the “party” card was designed and written and delivered to a printer who decided not to point out the error, though it is my fervent hope that someone recognized the mistake.
When I find typos in my printed columns, I know the fault is mostly mine. If I were timely in my submissions, I would have the opportunity to correct my text, and spare my editor.
cjon3acd@att.net