What do you think of typos on blogs?
April 20, 2009 //
As you know, I like to include a few typos and grammatical errors in my posts to help give it personal touch. Ok, that’s not true. I do it because I’m extremely lazy and tend not to read over what I’ve written properly. I blame it all on the AOL culture of IM which I’ve been using since 1995 (when I was 6). My other issue is that the best of the worst posts I write are written as I think, literally. My touch typing is very fast and my brain doesn’t move that quickly - perfect marriage.
As Pat Phelan put it on Twitter just now:
@PaulWalsh i dont mention the Walshyisims as much as I used to 
My response was
If I wrote on a serious blog I’d correct myself, but my ‘Walshyisims’ as you put it, are what make it a personal journal
At the time of writing this post I decided to copy ‘n paste Pat’s tweet and noticed the following
@PaulWalsh exactly and thats what make them perfect
Seriously though, if I was writing for a major publisher, I’d take the time to review and correct my mistakes. As it happens, I’m not and I therefore, can’t afford the time to review everything I write. It’s not out of disrespect for my readers (you mad eejit). This is my personal journal so I can get away with it, I think.
What do you think? Does it annoy you that I’m comfortable with my lack of ability to write properly?
By the way, you should follow Pat, he has a great technology blog and his tweets are very funny and insightful. He’s a good friend too.
ian hayward says 
cheryl says 
BankCardUSA says 
Stephanie says 
As an editor I take care to avoid typos in my own writing, and to correct them when it’s my job to, but as someone who lives in the real world I don’t get upset when I encounter them generally - even in books.
Depending on the degree of formality assumed or expected, blogs and tweets etc. can get away with a good deal more, and discussion forums or chat-rooms more again. This seems to be what you’re saying about correcting them according to the formality of their context. Typos can even be an endearing trait and a source of good-natured fun. They are off-putting only when, in an official context, they are so numerous or egregious that they damage the point being made. And of course, they are wholly undesirable in edited prose!
You might like this quote from the Oxford English Dictionary:
“The pronunciation is the actual living form or forms of a word, that is, the word itself, of which the current spelling is only a symbolization.”
(original italics)
April 21st, 2009
I love that quote. It’s now amongst my favourite.
BTW, I can spot typos in someone else’s work easier than most. I used to get about 50% in English and Math aptitude tests all the time. But ranked above 95% for feature detection every time - got 99% once. I guess that’s why my first startup specialised in Quality Assurance.
It’s spotting them in my own work that’s the issue.
April 21st, 2009
Glad you liked the quote. Spelling used to be a lot looser, in general; for example, Shakespeare spelled his name several different ways.
Spotting typos in one’s own work is tricky for everyone - it’s a wood-for-trees problem! Joseph Williams’ third paragraph here is a good way of looking at it, though it’s not specifically about typos so much as clear writing.
April 21st, 2009