Oh
g'w'on...typos are trivial, they don't mean anything! No one really
cares, because everyone knows what I mean. And besides, they're
funny! We're all human and make mistakes. So what! We "don't
see” them when we read because our brain knows what the word is
supposed to say.
Right?
 |
| Yes...Yes it does have its price |
No,
not right. A few infamous reasons why:
In
2004, Philadelphia Judge Jacob P. Hart included in his ruling a
massive reduction in attorney fees due to excessive typos, to the
tune of $31,350.
In
2005 one of the costliest business errors was made when a Japanese
bank sold shares of one of its companies on the Tokyo stock
exchange. No problem, easy to do. However, instead of selling each
single share at 610,000 yen, a “minor” typographical error
placed the order at 610,000 shares at one (1) yen each. Damage done:
the equivalent of $340 million.
We
can go as far back as 1631 to see proofreading issues. English
royal printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas were to reproduce the
King James Bible. Kudos to them for only having ONE error in 783,137
words! But they lost their business license anyway and were fined
the equivalent of $50,000 (£300 then). For one little error? I
think readers would probably not mentally “fix” "Thou shalt
commit adultery." It became known as the “Wicked Bible” and
rumor has it that 11 copies are still out there.
The
cost of typos for businesses each year is in the millions. In this
day and age of social media and instant ability to “let the world
know,” company reputations can be seriously damaged,
professionalism and even competence questioned, branding damaged,
charges of false advertising or bait-and-switch (see Alitalia example
below), and the backlash from angry customers with instant access to
the consuming world. Customers, both present and potential, begin to
ask themselves “Is anyone there even paying attention to what they
are publishing?”
Alitalia
barely rescued a bit of its reputation in a “goodwill” gesture in
2006 when a typographical error offered business-class flights from
Toronto to Cyprus for $39 instead of the usual $3,900. After up to
2,000 tickets were sold, Alitalia attempted to cancel the tickets,
prompting a backlash in public relations. The decision to cut its
losses of in excess of $7.2 million and market its “goodwill
gesture” allowed them to protect its reputation.
Could
every company rescue itself like this? Is a lack of proofreading
worth the risk?
A
single misplaced character or comma can have extreme financial
consequences in the insurance industry. See “The
$759 million comma,” by Jerry Trupin in the Insurance
Advocate,
October 13, 2014.
You
may think that these are extreme cases and the odds are in your favor
that your spellcheck is up to the task of making sure your document
says what you want, and your grammar checker will highlight every
sentence it sees as questionable. I'm sure no one will notice that
the design of your paper “complimented” your envelope instead of
“complemented” it. Or that everyone would realize that 3
tablespoons isn't all that much different from 3 teaspoons, or that
three-quarters of a cup cannot be lazily translated to “it's very
close to a cup, so it must be about 250 milliliters.”
This
all tells us that there cannot be enough importance given to
proofreading and copyediting at every point of content creation.
Recent economic trends have seen a shift in where to spend money for
businesses, allowing for “oh a little typo and a little
embarrassment isn't worth the money we'd have to spend for a
proofreader.” Word processing programs can identify and correct
typographical errors, but there is a limit to what they can do, and
can never substitute for a professional proofreader.
Make
sure that what you write, submit and/or publish can be held to the
higher quality that is demanded today, offering higher value,
surpassing your target's expectations and ranks you as high as you
hope to be. Don't make the mistake of disregarding the fact that
inadequate proofreading can result in a single keystroke disaster.
A
Copyeditor is a proofreader with the added knowledge and experience
in not only grammar, spelling and English variations, but also styles
of writing. A copyeditor will sometimes have specialized knowledge in
a particular field, but will always ensure consistency throughout the
text (style, names, dates, locations, etc.). A great copyeditor with
the added expertise of a proofreader is your final line of defense
and always worth it, especially if your content has gone through
various changes and hands.
A
Proofreader reviews a final product, the edited text, for spelling,
punctuation, typos, correct use of English, and regional and
international variations. Your editor had a go at your document, or
you're sure it's pretty much in final form and you need to make sure
there are no strange uncaught typos or commas? You're experienced at
writing content and know you simply need good proofreading but no
rewrites, etc.? An experienced proofreader is perfect here.
