By Annete Cinelli Trossello
A few weeks ago in a hotel in Providence, Rhode Island, I passed "A Exit." That's not right, I thought. "That's not right," my friend Kerry exclaimed. I was staying there with a group of college friends and half of us are English majors. We were all irritated at the sign. "It should be An Exit," said one, "or just Exit," added another. "Maybe it's supposed to be Exit A? Not to be confused with Exit B?" I mused aloud. As we were waiting for the elevator we saw "B Exit" to our left. We all agreed it would have been better to have the letter after the word "exit."
Mistakes in punctuation, spelling, and grammar always jump out at me; as a copy editor, it's my job to notice those things. While I don't act on these errors, I do enjoy reading about people who do! Jeff Deck, an editor currently residing in New Hampshire, and Benjamin Herson, a college buddy of Deck who works at a bookstore in Oregon, went on a road trip across the US fixing errors in signs. They tell of their journey in their book just released this past summer, The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time.
Armed with markers, correction fluid, chalk, and crayons, the duo edited misplaced apostrophes (womens' room vs. women's room), incorrect word usage (you're vs. your), and misspellings (restarant vs. restaurant). One of the signs they edited was a historic sign at the Grand Canyon. They "deleted" an apostrophe and put one where it should be. They also noticed a misspelling, but left that alone. These vigilantes, as some media outlets have dubbed them, were sentenced to probation, fined, and banned from national parks for a year.
On their website, www.greattypohunt.com they have a page where they invite others to share typos and subsequent corrected signs. On this page, they are sure to advise readers to always get permission before fixing a typo. Lesson learned!
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