Real Words

I know that I’m not supposed to say this as a writer but I really don’t think typos are that big of a deal. This isn’t to say that I don’t proofread my work or try to weed out all typos in my own writing. Because I write primarily for clients, I think it’s important to maintain the standard of typo-free work. But as a reader, I really don’t mind typos at all and don’t think that they indicate all of the horrible things about the writer that we are taught to assume they mean.

Most people see a typo and think a few basic things about the author. They think that he didn’t care enough about his work to read through it again for typos. They think that she’s a sloppy writer. They think that he doesn’t really know how to spell or how to be grammatically correct. They think that she’s a bad writer. We assume all of these negative things about the writing and the writer based on the typos that we find.

The reality is that most typos probably don’t reflect any of these things. I assume some basic things to be true about most typos, especially if they’re in online writing. I assume that her thoughts were flying faster than her fingers and she was having trouble keeping up. I assume that his job demands quantity and that he had the time to research and write a quality piece but not the additional time to comb through it for typos. I assume that she did read through it, maybe several times, but that she was so familiar with her own work that she didn’t spot the typos that were there; (she read the writing the way she intended it to be written and not the way it was on the page).

In addition to believing that are assumptions about typos are incorrect, I really don’t believe that typos are a bad thing. As a reader, they don’t bother me a bit. And in fact, I think that they can be kind of fun. I love when I’m reading through a book and catch a typo that the author and editor missed. It makes me feel like I’m in on the secret, like I’m there with the work as it’s being written. It reminds me that a creative work is never ever finished even if it’s been published and put aside. In rare instances, the very nature of the typo causes me to laugh out loud. Or it inspires a whole train of thought about what the author really meant to say, what she was thinking as she mis-wrote, what her life was like as she was completing the work.

So, I happen to like typos. I think they bring humanity to the work that we are writing. I think that they can be inspiring as a reader. And even if you don’t like them, I really don’t think that they typically detract from the piece of writing. In almost all cases, you can easily guess what the writer meant to say and move on with the piece. If the typo doesn’t impact your understanding of the writing, does it really matter that it was there?

Of course, I don’t recommend that writers fail to proofread their work. The reality of the world is that people are going to judge you based on your typos. You aren’t going to get the freelance job you want if you fail to proofread your cover letter for typos. You are probably going to lose some readers if your blog regularly has writing flaws. Making sure that you have taken the typos out of your work is going to make you look like a more polished and professional writer and will show the world that you take your work seriously.

But as a reader, I encourage you to think of typos as a fun place for connecting with the writer and letting your own imagination drift off into their world for a little while. Let’s judge less and have fun more!

Question of the Day: So what do you think, do typos matter?

Link for fun: Typo Generator

[Tags] freelance, typo, copywriting, proofreading, editing, writing, blogging [/Tags]