{"id":10417,"date":"2014-03-17T16:12:25","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T13:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patnubay.org\/?p=10417"},"modified":"2019-06-14T04:47:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T01:47:18","slug":"susan-ople-art-of-errorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/?p=10417","title":{"rendered":"Susan Ople: Art of \u2018errorism\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art of \u2018errorism\u2019<\/strong>
\nby Susan Ople
\nFirst posted in susanople.com<\/a><\/p>\n

A world-class performer cannot help but wince when someone sings out of tune. Athletes frown at an extra slice of pizza and a chocolate bar that mere mortals devour unburdened by the thought of calorie count and body fat. Writers have their own pet peeves \u2014 the dreaded typo errors, letters missing or added, that lead readers astray and authors embarrassed.<\/p>\n

On Facebook, a friend of mine wrote about a man who killed his wife because of a dreaded typo. The man\u2019s neighbor and good friend texted him to say: \u201cI am deeply sorry for using your wife without permission. Mine wasn\u2019t available so I had to use yours, but it was only for a brief moment. It won\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

In rage, the man confronted his wife and killed her.<\/p>\n

A few minutes after, the same neighbor texted: \u201cOops, sorry for the typo! Meant wifi, not wife. Hehehe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, I had my share of dreadful typos, bringing me shame and horror upon publication. A common typo error is forgetting the letter \u201cI\u201d in public, which has its own consequences. Slips on my keyboard lead to \u201cyour\u201d instead of \u201cyou\u2019re\u201d and \u201cthis\u201d to \u201cthese\u201d. I also loathe seeing words misspelled like \u201cdeserts\u201d in lieu of \u201cdesserts\u201d in a food column, confusing camels for chocolates in a reader\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

They say that these dreaded typos are inevitable. It\u2019s another thing when such typos end up in public signs and places. \u201cPlease flash after using\u201d may encourage lewd behavior in public toilets. \u201cVon Boyage!\u201d was actually used by a government agency in a tarp displayed near an international airport. \u201cFree drink with the main curse!\u201d will keep customers away for a long, long time.<\/p>\n

Of course, \u201cit\u2019s\u201d can easily become \u201cits\u201d out of confusion over usage, not spelling. Grammatical errors are difficult to spot on a computer screen whre lettrs tend tolook alike. Spellcheck with its wriggly lines has its own days off, and cannot be relied on 100 percent.<\/p>\n

For writers, turning in a perfect article in both form and substance way beyond the deadline requires extraordinary discipline. Very few would associate the word \u201cdiscipline\u201d with writing because of the notion that writers are drifters, with imaginary friends. I do have imaginary friends but I take offense at being categorized as a \u201cdrifter.\u201d My columns do drift, but I am quite tethered to my laptop, and vice-versa when doing my work.<\/p>\n

The art of dreaded typos brings out the meaningless genie in each of us. That genie refuses to stick to the classic English rules of Strunk and White, and fully ignores the style manuals of all the greatest news publications combined.<\/p>\n

The genie disrupts gleefully one\u2019s composition of words to promote linguistic follies. \u201cLet\u2019s get ready to ramble!\u201d \u2014 the genie says while clapping its hands in glee.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, that genie comes out in the oddest moments, like during videoke sessions when it supplies strange lyrics to fit the most popular melodies in the world. \u201cAnd now, the end is here, and now I face the final birthday.\u201d Uhmm, what\u2019s final is the curtain, not the birthday.<\/p>\n

How about the ABBA\u2019s Dancing Queen? Have you heard someone sing it this way before? \u201cSee that girl, watch that scene, kicking the Dancing Queen!\u201d Such violence is not allowed in discos everywhere.<\/p>\n

We are all human beings prone to mistakes especially when English is not our first language. The journey to perfection never ends, so we might as well enjoy the missteps and detours along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art of \u2018errorism\u2019 by Susan Ople First posted in susanople.com A world-class performer cannot help but wince when someone sings out of tune. Athletes frown at an extra slice of pizza and a chocolate bar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":9195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[40,36,77,81],"tags":[114,139],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11566,"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10417\/revisions\/11566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patnubay.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}