The Great Typo Hunt

August 13, 2010 - How embarrassing is it when you take the time to write a great piece of content, only to post it and identify a typo moments later?

We're fortunate that in the era of computers, our word processing programs come with great spell-checking tools, and making edits to posted content is usually a simple process. But what happens when your typo appears on something-like a sign-that doesn't come equipped with a "delete" button?

Two friends, Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson, set out to correct these publically viewable typographical nuisances in The Great Typo Hunt, which has since turned into a book. The chronicles of their 2 ½ month journey across the United States involved a "typo correction kit" composed of Sharpies, chalk and Wite-Out.

The Great Typo Hunt intervenes on a help wanted marquee.

They came across many instances of common misspellings like "tresspassing" (the typo that sparked the journey), and of course familiar mix-ups such as its/it's and their/they're/there. Eventually, Deck created the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) and alerted businesses and organizations across the U.S. of their bad grammar and spelling.

In one instance, the pair was charged for defacing federal property at the Grand Canyon where they fixed the bad grammar in a fake Native American watchtower sign. Many businesses that didn't allow TEAL to correct the signs themselves issued the standard, "Oh, we'll fix it later" or simply didn't seem to care.

The dream of TEAL reached beyond correcting the 437 typos they found and become more of a journey to raise awareness of the importance of language and literacy and taking the time to give everything a second look.

You can read more about the "grammar vigilantes" in their tale, The Great Typo Hunt . You can bet that manuscript went through numerous rounds of proof-reading before it was printed!

In the age of the Internet, where written work can be published worldwide in a matter of seconds, proofreading is a must. Even though editing posted content is simple, those few seconds that your typo or grammatical error is on your website, blog or social media profile may cost you serious reputation points if the wrong people see it.

You owe it to your online reputation to always double-check your content before posting it. Professional content providers like We Do Web Content run multiple checks for grammar and spelling errors, so you can rest easy knowing that more than one pair of eyes has gone over your content!

When you know your custom content from We Do Web Content is checked by at least 2 editors before hitting your website or blog, you can take comfort in knowing you won't be getting a visit from TEAL any time soon! Don't risk Internet embarrassment with sub-standard quality content; contact us today!  1-888-521-3880.