Thursday, July 17, 2008

You're So Vain...

Despite the many typos that I am sure appear on my blog, I'm usually a pretty good copy editor. I do a lot of writing/proofreading/editing in my day job. Plus I'm one of those insanely annoying people who finds joy in spotting others' mistakes. This is totally my grandma's fault.

When I was growing up, that's how Gram got me to read the newspaper: she made a game of it. We had a contest to see who could find the most mistakes in each issue. I can't remember what the winner got but if you've read this post, you know it undoubtedly involved some kind of food. I loved this game (nerd alert!) and it was really easy, actually, because our small town weekly was rife with spelling mistakes, horrific punctuation and grammatical tragedies. And her master plan worked. I'm an admitted bibliophile and, to this day, still get a little excited when I spot a mistake in print.

Now...all of that said, I am horrible - absolutely, completely, 100% horrible - at proofreading my own work. I think it's because when I write something, I review it 100 times, changing a word here and a word there until it's as close to perfect as I can get it. Then, when it's time to proof, I essentially have it memorized so I'm more saying it in my head than I am actually reading it. I know this is bad, but I understand my weakness (and, hey...isn't that what assistants are for anyway?) and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

This leads me to the whole reason for this post. You'd think because I know that my mind thinks two words ahead and my fingers sometimes move too fast, that I'd be more careful when commenting on blogs or shooting off quick e-mails (I don't know how many times I've written "dong" instead of doing. And not just in e-mails to Dr.Freud). But I'm never careful. Here's my confession:

I don't use the Preview button. Ever. I'm so damn cocky, that I go straight to Submit.

So if I've commented on your blog, I totally apologize. Please know that as soon as that horrible "Are serious? I car tennis rocket hell." comment popped up, I felt like a complete dumbass. And, of course, I couldn't go back and change it. So then I had to post again to apologize, say that I suck, then tell you what I really meant to say. Which, now that I think about it, gave you a bonus comment. So maybe you should be thanking me here...


Today's title selection: You're So Vain - Carly Simon

5 comments:

Mama Bee said...

LMAO! What's really bad is that I read, re-read, preview, spell-check, read AGAIN, and I still miss grammar and spelling errors all the time! Hell, there's probably one in this comment too! ;)

Lisamaree said...

aH dUH< i dONT pREVIEW eITHER.
XX
shit cpalsolock was on!

ATenorio said...

Ha ha ha!! My favorite is when I see an error in a printed book. It seems so much worse because there are probably thousands of copies floating around. And I feel superior for like a day.

I am so anal that I type all of my posts in Word first, with spellcheck and grammar check turned on. And I still f*ck things up!!

Sarah said...

I has a degree in english: I never make misteaks. GO LIONS!

precious said...

my grammer and spelling are so poor, i don't even realize i have made an error...or maybe, just maybe, i want to spread joy to you grammer-checking blood hounds...you decide.

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