On 1/19/2017 1:21 AM, Joy wrote:
On 1/18/2017 8:00 PM, John Kasupski wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 21:13:22 -0500, jmcquown
wrote:

It's just that once upon a time in a galaxy far away I was a
contributing editor
for a nationally circulated magazine, and I was known for turning in
what we
referred to as "clean copy" - so I hate letting errors like that
slip by me.

We interrupt this program for a brief look into the thoughts of a man
who has
noticed errors of spelling and grammar in Tom Clancy novels.

That said, I'm sure most people's minds filled in the blank. My own
mind has
plenty of blanks to spare grin and it did exactly that before I
clicked the
"Send Now" button - that's how I failed to catch it. But thank you for
letting
me off easy. My editor at the magazine would've been mortifed and
probably
would've sent an e-mail to ask if I'd been feeling under the weather
lately.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled discussion of preposterously
precious puddytats, already in progress... :-)

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY


Okay, if you work for a magazine, I can understand your mortification.
That said, it is far easier to proofread something someone else has
written. I, too, notice errors in books I'm reading. However, I have
sent out far more than one email that wasn't correct. A Toastmaster
friend and I have fallen into the habit of proofreading anything the
other one writes for the club website. We've both found errors that
needed to be corrected.

I used to proofread marketing materials when I worked for an insurance
company. Obvious typos are easy. Proofreading for context requires a
tad more diligence. I later went to work for a small software company.
In the first week the owner got in a big batch of freshly printed
brochures to be used in a mass mailing campaign for software resellers.
He excitedly handed everyone a copy of the new brochure. I read
through it and got to the final little blurb at the end. Being the new
kid on the block I hesitated. One of my new co-workers urged me to
speak up. "Excuse me, Jeff, did you know this says you offer
*toll-tree* support?" He was mortified! At least two other people had
read it before it went to press. It took the newbie to catch the error.

Jill