Their r so meny tipos in this countree. What’s a grammar geek to do?
If you follow the advice presented in the book The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time, you might just head out for a typo-fixing, cross-country roadtrip! That’s what Jeff Deck, a former associate editor for Rocks and Minerals magazine, and his co-author Benjamin D. Herson did, anyway.
In the book, the two friends set out to correct misspellings, but trouble quickly finds their newly formed Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL)—and more serious trouble than just how many Cs are in “broccoli.” From running into conflicting style guides to accidentally defacing Federal property to a lesson on the evolution of the English language, Deck and Herson have to figure out the best way to correct mistakes—and decide whether the errors should be corrected at all.
TEAL’s journey, chronicled in first person, is a look into the world of words that most of us don’t usually get to see. Deck and Herson have experience with and an obvious passion for language, but it’s their humorous anecdotes—including a typo hunt in an underground Atlanta mall and a historical conundrum in a church in Arizona dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi (or is that that St. Frances of Assissi?)—that really make this book fun.
Anyone who’s ever rolled his eyes at a typo on a shirt or in a museum will laugh out loud at the chronicles of TEAL’s adventure. Best of all, you don’t have to be a trained editor to appreciate this book; the authors explain every typo they correct, down to the difference between “it’s” and “its.”
More than that, Deck and Herson offer up some new insight about the people who comprise this country and the different styles and mannerisms that make up the patchwork whole. The story is also a lesson in when not to correct a typo—such as at a historical monument or when the creator is not a native English-speaker.
The Great Typo Hunt is a story about two men on a mission, but it’s also a story about America, the people who populate it, and the way they express themselves. Even those of us who haven’t memorized The Chicago Manual of Style can still appreciate the wacky adventures and the tour of the U.S. presented in the book.
The Great Typo Hunt, a 288-page, hardcover book from Crown Publishing, is available now at a list price of $23.99.
11 Comments
It is great that these guys undertook this quest! Now can we please have teachers teach kids not to use the word “LIKE” in every other word when speaking!!! I certainly hope so!
In addition to today’s growing grammatical disasters, we seem to be getting stuck on favorite words and habits, such as stuttering on the word “I” at the beginning of a sentence, as if to add more drama to a topic, and overly-using the word “amazing” to describe everything from someone’s appearance to a personal opinion of everything on Earth.
Yeah, that and when someone says “I mean”..before they’ve even said anything! (the list unfortunately goes on and on) Or..you ask where the screwdriver is (for example)..”it’s one over there”. It’s not It’s, it’s “there’s”…or “there is”. I know this is grammar and not spelling, but I had to get that off of my chest! I HATE lazy grammar/english! (I thankfully blame my mother for this pet peeve)
I am forwarding this interview to at least three of my friends who feel as I do about the cavalier attitude these days toward the English language. I consider English as the most important, inclusive and international gift ever given, and I respect it with all my heart. I am not so concerned about generational slang or bad habits as I am about the misuse of basic proper grammar. People not only don’t know the rules, for which I blame the teachers, but they really don’t care. Lay and lie, I or me and him or he, who and whom, on and on it goes. I have at least learned not to correct perfect strangers (and relatives) for fear of my life, but when I heard that some self-appointed guru decided that it’s okay to split an infinitive, something inside me turned belly up. I shall buy the book, and likely send a copy to others who really need it. Maybe it will teach us that we need to be more forgiving, although I do hate the thought of surrendering Thanks for the tip.
Split an infinitive!? Just to have people be able to use “was/
were” correctly would be a relief to me. No need to blame it on the teachers. It’s how their families speak. Oh, and how about “don’t/doesn’t”? “He don’t. She don’t.” I’ve even heard TV newsmen use that one incorrectly. Makes me cringe.
I can’t wait to read this book. The thing that drives me absolutely crazy is the incorrect use of apostrophes, and I see it EVERYWHERE. I want to just scream “apostrophes indicate possession, not what is plural” and I even see it with words that just end in ‘s’ like Jones. It is sadly true that the knowledge of proper English is gone in this country, including spelling and oral/written sentence structure. It is a great loss.
Will, with the limited vocabulary kids now acquire in school, they are unfortunately very handicapped in expressing anything. To express their liking or approval of something, the gamut seems to be limited to “amazing”, “brilliant”, “fantastic” and “fabulous”, without any understanding of the actual meanings of those words. However, it is sometimes even worse when even those adjectives are beyond the individual concerned and they come out with, “…..it has the wow factor”! I cringe but can only feel sadness that these young people have to go through life little better in verbal expression than grunting stone-age cave dwellers.
Susannah, the book “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” by Lynne Truss ought to be recommended study material in English teaching.
Jane, I loved your comment about young people going through life these days little better in verbal expression than “grunting stone-age cave dwellers”. Good one! You made me laugh out loud.
Diana, you, like, lolled?
Ha ha ha. Yes, Jane I like, LOLed. It was like, amazing, and like, excellent, and even like, hilarious. ;)