My husband decided the other day that he wanted to read my blog posts. He sat down to the computer and started from the beginning. Every once in a while I'd hear a giggle and he'd call me in to ask a question. When he was finished the conversation went:
Me: Well, what do you think?
Jay: You have a lot of typos.
Me: I TRY to look for mistakes when I'm finished typing.
Jay: Hey look...Tera and Rey have typos too.
Me: Would you like to be my editor?
Jay: No.
Me: What should I do? Nobody is perfect, you know.
Jay: You should all go back to college.
I'm here today to acknowledge my shortcomings. I'm sure that there are readers out there, much like myself, who pick up on other people's writing errors rather quickly. (I also have a nasty habit of correcting a speaker's grammar in my head as they're talking.) But for some reason I'm just not accomplished at editing my own work, I never have been. So, forgive me if you're reading my posts and you stumble upon the occasional mishap. I do my best. What I can't quite grasp is how I always managed to excel in English courses throughout high school and college. Funny how those things work out, huh?
Just a little side thought before I end...knowing that an English teacher reads my blog does make me a bit neurotic during my editing process but apparently, according to my husband, I need to try harder.
Why is it that we always want to please the educators, no matter how old we get? :)
6 comments:
Oh my goodness, this is just too weird!!! I was going to do a blog about this VERY subject yesterday, but my Hodge Podge won the consideration!!!
Nina, I must admit, I am the SAME way! I find myself "editing" e-mails as I read them, and I even have a hard time while "shorthanding" texts!!! I just can't do it! Rey and I have had this discussion before, and she has even occasionally showed me texts/e-mails of people who just can't spell (all I must say here is S.C.). You make a good point though...we always tend to see other people's errors, but not our own...(where are they Jay?!?!).
And you are also correct in the sense that when I post to that English teacher's blog, I try much harder to get things grammtically correct!!! Funny how it works that way!
P.S. How many people are going to "preview" their post to this blog so as to ENSURE there aren't any grammar errors?!
I get paranoid about it too. My father is an English teacher, so you know how I've suffered!! : )
After a while though, I realize I could just become paralzyed with fear of misspelling and never post anything. For my post about Don Imus, I was trying to find the correct spelling for the plural of "ho." I used an "e" and that might have been wrong. But I should never even need to know the correct spelling of that word! Geeez!!!
Tera~I know that you're a grammar nut...but I also know you're pretty good at texting. Sometimes I don't have a clue about what something says because texting is like a foriegn language to me. All those chopped up words, urg!
Anali~I can't imagine the pain you must have encountered as a chlid!
When I sit down to post my dictionary becomes my most special friend! I'm an AWFUL speller!!!! When I leave a note for my husband I often get the "you went to college and you spell like this?" resonse :)
oh, good heavens! i can only assume that I am "that English teacher" before whom you all fear and tremble! how very silly. as you can plainly see, i rarely use capital letters when i comment because i sacrifice speed and ease for correctness. sometimes, even The English Teacher has to take time off! and, i must say that, while i always appreciate a well-written and carefully spelled blogpost, it's pretty obvious when the errors are just plain typos rather than ignorance of spelling and grammar. those typing errors are not the kind that interfere with the enjoyment of reading and understanding, and they don't take the intelligence quotient of the writer down a peg, either.
it's hard to hurry and commit our thoughts to a comment box while they're still fresh in our minds and hit the right keys at the same time, too. and i'm so happy to have people comment and add to the discussion at my blog that i sure don't want a fear of judgment from The English Teacher to interfere with that. blogger's wonky word verification does plenty on its own, thanks.
so, please--just ignore my day job and think of me as the slightly insane democrat with a bunny fetish who drinks martinis and bullies the men in her family. okay? and nina--i love that editing marks chart!! where did you get it?
Anali~You are truly to be commended for making it through as such! As Nina said, I am a "Grammar nut!" I probably would have driven myself crazy if my mom was an English teacher!!!
Nance~Phew! That's a relief! I can relax a bit now...I got quite a chuckle reading your post :)
Ms. Insane Bossy Democrat Martini Bunny Lover~ I'll do my best to control the voices in my head that scream "check it AGAIN, the bunny lover is coming!" You make me laugh soooo hard! I have to admit, I take jobs at your school in the hopes of being able to shoot the breeze with you second period cause you're so damn funny and always full of good conversation. :)
I found the chart by googling "editors marks" in the images section. Wouldn't it be nice to use those marks on your student's papers!
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