THE JOY OF FINDING TYPOS AND SPELLING ERRORS ON THE INTERNET by CHRISTINE TRZYNA
I remember back when I had to type on a typewriter for a short fiction class I was taking at a local community college at night. Oh I loved that class most of the time. I really worked hard at that class. I enjoyed reading and critiquing other people's work and usually I enjoyed reading what other people (characters) had to say about my submissions. There were a few stinkers in that class. Mostly self righteous with the tweedy jackets and elbow patches and pipes of the east coast though this is California or some such thing.
It was all supposed to be anonymous but let's face it, some of us became visible nervous wrecks hearing other people talk about our work which was telling. I tended to bounce my foot.
So one time I submitted a story and the worst critique of it was that I had spelled a word wrong - the same word repeatedly.
I don't know about you but I have about a half dozen words that somehow got into my brain spelled wrong and to this day I struggle to spell them right, and so I use spell check to catch these words.
Well, I was a bit embarrassed but more THE ENTIRE STORY WAS DISMISSED as WORTHLESS because of my spelling error. What about the content? The theme? The dialogue?
So these days, I read more on the Internet, and I notice lots of spelling errors that Internet Journalists did not have the time to notice. My guess is the race for beating deadlines or competiting with other journalists to submit is the real cause. Still I take joy in finding those mistakes. AND I KNOW THAT THE CONTENT IS STILL IMPORTANT as is the CREATIVITY and the RESEARCH and the INTERVIEWING and all else that makes a story great!
