When Mistakes Slip Through
We all make mistakes. Yes, even editors. Even careful and experienced editors. Even when a document has been read multiple times by multiple editors, sometimes mistakes do slip through.
You may have read about the Kansas high school student who discovered an error in the state writing test. In this case, the word “omission” appeared in place of “emission” in a writing prompt. The test was written by professionals, read over by professionals, and administered by professionals, but it took a student to point out the error. I wonder how many other students read the prompt, were confused, and assumed that the problem lay in their understanding of the question, rather than the question itself.
I catch mistakes in print quite often—mostly missing quotation marks and commas, along with the occasional misspelled word. I used to delight in finding these mistakes, but that was before I became an editor. How could anyone miss that? I used to wonder. Now I know.
It all comes down to human imperfection. No matter how good we are, sometimes our eyes will skip right over an obvious error. The editor sneezes, an error is missed. I go over these posts with a fine-tooth comb (or so I think) before I publish them, and still I occasionally spot a mistake in the finished piece, often about five seconds after I click “publish.” An editor with a mistake in her blog post about editing—now that’s embarrassing!
What can we do about editorial errors? Editors can (must) work constantly to beef up their skills. I certainly don’t know everything about editing, and I never will. There is always something to learn, something to brush up on. And, though I am a perfectionist, I’m also learning to see the imperfections as a reminder to stay humble. They’re also an incentive to always double-check what I have already double-checked. Thinking you have done a stupendously outstanding job is often a precursor to discovering you have left the “l” out of “public” or (much worse) the “o” out of “count.” Just trust me on this one.
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