What I've Learned about Editing

 Oh my gosh, where to begin?

I've learned several things this semester about the process of editing from a personal project that I've been working on for class. I think my favorite was finding out that typos are not always bad and they can even be intentional, and they shape our society around us pretty much daily. Language is constantly changing, so there are so many ways to edit, nowadays. As much as it is contested, not all typos are bad! They can actually serve a purpose. For example we've all driven down the freeway to see a sign like this:

There are typos, but it give the cows a voice and a sort of personality, these simple typos are the face of and the main advertising for the company. So after you correct the spelling errors in your head with a laugh, you'll realize that Chick-fil-A actually sounds pretty good and you'll go buy some chicken nuggets!

They also change the voice of children's books and some poetry. The authors or poets will create some fun words that the reader has never seen before and it draws them in as they try to imagine is, it builds a bit of popularity. Dr. Suess, the "Jaberwocky" by Lewis Carroll, etc. 

Then there's some unintentional typos that can make a popular book a sort of collectors edition. A typo might normally cheapen the look of a new book, but J. K. Rowling may have benefited from an embarrassing mistake where the publisher misspelled her name on her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. “JA Rowling." It sold for about £10,000. I don't know about you but I have never seen a mistake profit that much. 

Even the accidental mistakes can draw attention and publicity. These auctioneers drew even more wild attention to those typos, making this book more rare and bringing it to the forefront of the minds of the early fans as many likely tried to get their own copy. 

People ask if I'm a 'grammar nazi' when I tell them I'm an English major, and maybe I was a little growing up but spelling errors happen all the time, and typos are actually becoming a functioning part of society. So now when people ask I can show them this research.

If you're interested, here's the sources I used:

Works Cited

Carroll, Lewis. “Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.” Poetry Foundation, Random House, 1983, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42916/jabberwocky. 

Kean, Danuta. “Misprint the Legends: Famous Typos from James Joyce to JK Rowling.” The Guardian, 16 June 2017, www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/jun/16/misprint-the-legends-famous-typos-from-james-joyce-to-jk-rowling. 

Simmons, Martha. “Use Grammatical Errors to Your Advantage.” Spin Sucks, 2 June 2015, spinsucks.com/communication/use-grammatical-errors-to-your-advantage/.