One of my super powers doesn’t involve leaping tall buildings in a single bound or going faster than a speeding bullet. It’s a relatively useless super power, unfortunately, but I’m really, really good at it!
What is this wondrous super power which I possess? I have an almost uncanny ability to spot typos and other grammatical errors, either as they blaze across the TV screen or in print. (See, I told you it was relatively useless and won’t save the world from zombies or evil empires, unfortunately.)
Examples:
1. Watching "My Parents’ House" a couple of weeks ago, the credits were rolling and I spotted 3 typos almost in a row. And you know how fast those credits roll! (I’d taped it and went back to double-check. Yes, I taped. No Tivo here.) Check it out:
Design SylistContruction AssistantPublictiy
You know the old fairy tale about the princess who could feel the pea under several layers of mattresses? She had an extra-special sensitivity for peas and I have an extra-special sensitivity for spotting stuff like this.
2. This morning I spotted another on a weight-loss commercial on TV:
No Pre-packged food
3. This morning, on esteelauder.com, I was reading about the "science behind the results," a Q&A interview with EL’s VP of R&D. I read through a few questions and then noticed that the questions I’d already read were posted twice. Huh? Clearly a copy/paste error by whomever does their content management, but all it would take is one quick read-through to spot this error.
4. LA Ink – don’t get me started on this one. The TV show uses captions throughout that are riddled with misspellings and typos. OK, I realize this isn’t the Discovery Channel and it’s not necessarily programming for intellectuals, but come on. Even people with tats read and deserve good spelling and grammar.
Who’s proofreading this stuff? I want THAT job! As a QA Manager (testing Web sites and interactive media), I was meticulous, detailed and thorough about the copy, ensuring there were no typos, that the grammar was correct, that the copy conformed to standard usability guidelines and user practices.
It’s distracting to see so many textual errors in media that is supposed to be professionally produced. When people see errors on TV or Web sites or print media, the subconscious thought is "If they can’t get something simple like the spelling right, what’s that say about their product?" I even worked in a company once that used several variants of their own company name: capitalization, partial capitalization, spaces between elements of the name, no spaces between elements, periods, no periods. Protecting the brand through clear and consistent use of the company name in all media should be a no-brainer.
A grammatical goof last week cracked me up (not the tragic incident, of course, but the goof in the headline):
Former Deputy Sentenced for Missing Wife’s Murder
It’s a shame he missed it! But is missing a wife’s murder a crime?
The Center of My Self 
I have that too!!!!! What a shame I am incapable of seeing it in my own blogs before I push the Print Entry button. I believe I\’m just so tired and frazzled by the time it\’s taken me to finish writing that I can\’t take going over another reading, so I just hope I\’ve done reasonably well. We have a mutual friend who drives me insane with his posts…if he weren\’t so darn interesting I wouldn\’t be able to stand all the typos and errors. But I have a family of wit smart, intelligent people who just don\’t have the eye for typos and grammar too, so I shouldn\’t cast aspersions.
YOU, on the other hand…I have rarely if ever found an error. Brava, Sister! Much love from Jack and Me!