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The viral tendencies of the Web and Social Media
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A language as nuanced and full of rules, regulations, and exceptions as English
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The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World One Correction at a Time.
Jeff Deck grew up with a keen sense of spelling and an ability to spot the pickiest of grammatical errors. Perhaps that’s what led him to an Ivy League education in English and several jobs in editing—one being at another New England institution whose walls are shroud in ivy.
Typos bother Jeff Deck—a lot. So much, in fact, that he set out to do something about it. Enlisting the help of his bookworm buddy from college, Ben Herson, the two engaged in a cross-country road trip to seek out errors of English in the Land of the Free. Found errors were to be photographed, documented, blogged about, and corrected.
To achieve this undertaking, Deck carried a purse-like kit on him with correction fluid, markers, chalk, and camera. “My mission was supposed to be…enlisting people’s aid in improving their surroundings.” That generally meant Deck and Herson approached locals as they toured the country and called them out on grammatical and spelling errors found on signage, literature, etc.
Most common typo targets were restaurants, stores, and tourist sites around the perimeter of the United States. Upon approach, the fearless editors offered to dip into the correction kit and make necessary edits. Some shopkeepers and business people obliged. Some laughed. Some outright said absolutely not. A few even hotly contested that their errors were in fact errors. A tally was kept of found typos versus corrected typos, and some corrections were made in stealth without permission. (This led to an interesting run in with Uncle Sam and a delayed publication date on the book.)
When a hostile response was received, it seemed to put author Jeff Deck in a funk, with page upon page of his lamenting correction rejection. Toward the middle of the book, and again near the end, Deck dives into what he considers unfair and unbalanced media coverage of his mission, with one talking head even suggesting Deck and Herson be court-ordered to "get a life."
Regardless of how people perceive him and his odd calling, Deck’s book misses the mark. His writing style is ridiculously wordy and fraught with history lessons of the English language, parallels from classic literature, and plenty of the author’s own troubled musings:
“Perhaps, I thought, what I regarded as typos were not ‘mistakes’ at all—they were the natural evolution of English. How could I know how the speakers of my native tongue would spell a hundred years from now? They’d alight from their potato-fueled urban gliders and laugh at my present efforts.”
And this is precisely where Deck, in my opinion, misses the mark. He took off on a crazy mission and made a go of it through social networking. Many crazy ideas are getting attention through its viral nature today. But Deck is an English major, and he wants to let the world know that he is well versed in the language. In spite of his claimed humble intentions, his story comes across as self righteous. His writing style is so laden with ridiculous blathering that it brings to mind a (unheeded) Mark Twain quote, “When you catch an adjective, kill it.” I'll admit I could take a lesson from Twain in my own writing.
While reading about Jeff and Ben’s travels is interesting, this book largely fails to make for an engaging read. For one, it’s tough to understand. You’ll definitely want a copy of Webster’s or another dictionary close at hand.
A few posts ago I blogged about common errors of English including the “offensive apostrophe.” (Apostrophe errors drive Mr. Deck insane!) However, English is laden with rules, regulations, and exceptions that are nearly impossible to keep properly sorted in one human brain. Throw in the fact that different style books—such as AP or Chicago—exist, and you’ll quickly find there’s no grammar rule that can’t be altered or broken. Yes, I still pick up on misplaced apostrophes and misspellings. But my writing? (Such as on this blog.) It adheres to the rules of sound grammar, and questions of style generally are answered by the AP Stylebook. (I do italicize book titles, newspapers, and other works. This is one where the rules of common grammar trump the AP in my opinion.)
If Deck’s mission is to see Americans become better English grammarians, then here’s hoping a tepid reception of his book and a slew of negative media coverage haven’t been enough to kill his self-righteous mission.
GET IT
The Great Typo Hunt is available from Amazon.com and anywhere else books are sold. eReader copies are available as well. The Amazon page has video footage of Jeff Deck and Ben Herson screwing around, and it makes you wonder how men near 30-years old aren't ashamed of their childish, superhero-esque behavior.
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