Proper proofreading is a profitable practice.
Alliteration aside, checking and re-checking one's own work before submission can mean the difference between "Let's eat Grandma!" and "Let's eat, Grandma!"
Last week, the BBC reported a proofing gaffe in an Australian recipe book. Of 150 recipes, only the recipe for spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto called for the use of "salt and freshly ground black people."
Did you chuckle? I did. The author of that book meant "freshly ground black pepper," of course. It's not all laughs for Penguin Books Australia, though.
The publisher had to reprint 7,000 copies of the cookbook in light of the proofreading error. The estimated cost of the misprint was around $18,000. The books that have already been distributed and are in stock in bookstores around Australia are not being recalled, but Penguin Books will send a revised edition to anyone who complains.
Proofreading errors and simple typographical mistakes have a long, colorful history. A lot of them are funny. Some make no sense. Others are gross and revolting. One has to have the dirty mind of a 13-year-old boy to catch a lot of them.
According to Reason Magazine, the Washington Post made the most famous typographical error in the history of Washington, D.C. It involved Woodrow Wilson and future wife Edith Galt. The newspaper meant to report Wilson "entertaining" Galt at a theater. Instead, the paper reported Wilson "entering" Galt in its early editions.
The Valley News, a New Hampshire-based newspaper, fell victim to poor proofreading in 2008 when it spelled its own name incorrectly through the addition of a superfluous letter "s." This wouldn't have been so embarrassing were it not for the fact that it was the front page masthead.
The response from the editor the next day: "Readers may have noticed that the Valley News misspelled its own name on yesterday's front page. Given that we routinely call on other institutions to hold themselves accountable for their mistakes, let us say for the record: We sure feel silly."
Perhaps one of the most infamous occurrences of a reviewing error was in the 1631 edition of the King James Bible. The printers of this edition, also known as the "Wicked Bible," left out a very important word in the seventh commandment. The word? "Not."
Thus, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" was turned into an open invitation for extramarital boot-knocking. The error was caught after a few copies but the damage was done. Fortunately, they didn't have the ability to rapidly transmit information through the Internet.
This leads us to issues with modern day proofreading errors. Like almost anything published to the Web, a news story or any kind of document posted on a Web page is going to be cached. Caching is the storage of a Web page on a server to reduce bandwidth usage during future browsing.
For example, if a news website posts an article with a grievous typo in the headline and fixes it later, the initial version of that article is still going to be circulating on the Web. Even if it is fixed five minutes later, it will still be cached. Once it hits the Web, it's already out of your control.
This can be especially troublesome if that typo or error defames or insults an individual or business.
In 1990, the St. Petersburg Times reported a lawsuit filed by a California law firm based on a typographical error in a Yellow Pages advertisement. Apparently the Feinberg and Maidenbaum firm didn't offer "abortion services" like the ad alleged. "Adoption" was the word they were looking for. The suit against BellSouth Advertising and Publishing was settled out of court shortly afterward.
To avoid any kind of trouble like this, take some time to read and re-read your papers, news articles and any other kind of written materials prior to submission. Pardon me for sounding like your preachy high school English teacher, but one proofing error can send unintended messages to your readers. These messages may involve the reader thinking you endorse extramarital affairs, offer abortion services or frequently forget your own name.
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