That sucks man! I’m a professional editor, and I have to agree that even the best editors sometimes let mistakes through.
That’s why we have bulletin boards, for our own personal Wall of Shame. We’re constantly sharing stories of obvious errors we should have caught, or weird errors that can sometimes happen and one has to be careful to watch for.
I think it’s a different beast, too, if you are submitting something on an internet-based form versus submitted a printed or PDF-ed resume and cover letter. Proofing something in a form field isn’t my ideal way to do it.
And my favorite error that ever got printed was at a friends workplace (a local bank). They mailed out lovely postcards thanking everyone on their mailing list for being “such good cuntomers.”
Just as a piece of random advice, if you need to submit something into a form field that’s important - like a resume - type it in MS Word and edit it there. Use spell check, print it and read it out loud (my personal favorite), give it to someone else, whatever. When you’re done, just copy and paste it into the field from the Word doc.
This is simply crap. Even the best editors sometimes miss stuff. I’ve got hundreds of books on my shelf, and i rarely get through a book without finding at least one of two spelling mistakes, typos, or even more egregious problems. I’ve found problems in books from big commercial publishers, from small specialist concerns, and from prestigious university presses.
OP, if you have to put stuff into an online application, and the text window is not big enough to allow for comfortable editing, type your cover letter (or whatever it is) into a word processor or a notepad-type application first, proofread it in the program, and then copy and paste it into the online application.
Aye, I usually make that a rule. Every now and then, however, I get excited… Ah well, chalk that one up to expereince. (No, reversing the I and E in Experience couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the mistake I made… )
For a hilarious example, take a look at the following link. The picture says it all. I actually see problems like that constantly in technical writing.
This is bullshit, phrased so absolutely like that. It is possible for a qualified and skilled professional editor to review a document, and for it go out with an error no one catches. I have been witness to a scenario where no less than NINE professional editors reviewed a (finalized) document that was ultimately published containing a basic typo.
I have seen articles in “The Economist” with typos, I have seen books by major publishers with typos, I have seen Federal court opinions with typos. They happen, even with multiple redundant levels of proofreading. To say that a single person must never, ever fail to catch an error is just ridiculous.
Count me as another who agrees that even the best editors make mistakes.
I had 7 textbooks over the summer. I found typos in every one of them. Two of them were technical writing textbooks.
I once read a book in which the name of a character changed halfway through the book and became the name of a character who had already died.
But there is no excuse whatsoever for leaving errors in your resume. It’s one document. You’re not on deadline. You have all the time in the world to proof, proof again, and then ask someone else to proof for you.
I’ll concede that my earlier post was bullshit as stated. Y’all are right that no editor catches 100% of all errors all the time. But if you can’t produce a single one-page document that is designed to highlight your careful attention to detail and showcase your editing skills… then you have no business applying for an editorial job.
Am I the only one who sees the irony in giving editors a pass on typos in their resumes?
Anyone who wants to take a typing class can find one. And what is this, the 70’s? There’s been typing tutor software out there for decades now. Much of it free for download.
You sure are full of excuses for why your sloppy writing behavior isn’t your fault. :rolleyes:
“Of course” is often used as an aside to indicate reasoning.
The implication, which I thought was quite clear, was that I developed my typing over a very long period, and can perform quite adequately in terms of speed, if not accuracy. By the time I had a chance to learn the proper way (in terms of money and time), I had become very set in my ways, and no longer felt it worthwhile - which it probably isn’t.
Based on everything you’ve written here, I would never hire you for any job that involved working with language. Or actually, any job at all that involved attention to detail and taking personal responsibility for your mistakes.
Sorry to be so blunt, but you simply come across as sloppy in general, and prone to shifting blame for that away from yourself.
Another trick for catching errors, especially in your own work, is to read it backwards.
My first “real” job was as “quality control” at an S&L. Essentially, this meant I proofread output from the production word processors for typos or missed information. Lot of boilerplate in this job, and it had been used for years by the time I was hired.
So imagine my surprise the day I discovered an error in the boilerplate for a loan modification agreement, where the customer was instructed, “Sign below if you accept this officer.”
That had been going out for years, and I was obviously the first person to catch it. Yes, it got changed.
This is to me an incredibly lame excuse. I didn’t go to a typing class either, my mother made me do a 2-week-course (lent from the local library) when I was a teen (damned good idea). (One of those spiral things where each day is one sheet and on day 14 you’re finished).
But as has been said, you can download software cheaply or for free.
Heck you don’t even need software: you have Word, right? Or Open office or wordpad or whatever. Turn off all the autocorrect features (or use the simple editor version), take a book or any internet text and type it, and go back and correct things.
You only need half an hour to an hour training each day consistently. Each word that you got wrong, you repeat four times. Or you type faster and go back and correct everything (didn’t count with the old typing machines, but with computers, things are easier).
If you are looking for a job as an editor, or anything connected with it, it’s absolutely imperial and most certainly worthwhile that your typing is accurate (or that you take the damn time to look things over). I’ve gotten into sloppy habits too (and firefox makes me lazier by underlining wrong spellings and offering correct ones), but if it’s an important email for work or a document for work, I take the extra 5 minutes to look it over.
Get into good habits now, or stop applying for jobs you aren’t suited for.
I had typing class in high school, and it stuck. The problem now is that I have trouble NOT touch typing…like on my iPhone. My darned eyes have to stop and think where to look for each letter, while my ten fingers just know from muscle memory where they are, and the whole word for that matter in the case of common ones.
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