Tyops
Typos are mistakes in a publication. Typos may be misspellings. Typos may be an inappropriate word, like using scents for cents. Tpoys is the one thing in this modern age that is neither discovered by spelling or grammar checkers. No matter how hard to you try to get rid of them, they appear at the worst possible time and in the most embarrassing places. For example, The Recipe of the Month in theJune Chronicles was attributed to Helga Shultz. Helga requested that a correction appear in the July Chronicles. I wrote the correction and showed it to her for her approval. Everything to this point was correct. Then I decided to change the structure of the paragraph. If you read the correction on the front page of the July, 1996 Congregational Chronicles you read, “The Recipe of the Month that was in the June issue of the congregational Chronicles was not supplied by Jennie Sanchez from Caldwell United Methodist Church, and not Helga Shultz as was noted. We apologize for the error.” Now I apologize for compounding the error. Jennie Sanchez from Caldwell United Methodist Church did supply the Recipe of the Month that appeared in the June issue of the Congregational Chronicles.
In a recent M.E.M.O. column,1 Martin Marty who writes for the Christian Century, can do a whole column on tsypo that are humorous and gain a laugh or two. Here are a few samples. Some of them are subtle, so read carefully.
“Surly the Presence of the Lord’ by: Chamber Choir.” “Leader: The Living God sends us froth to serve…” “Solo: ‘The Solid Rock/’Tis so Sweet to Rust in Jesus.'” “Births: Stewart and Amy had a baby girl on August 7 in Wisconsin. Material grandmother is Mary.” “A new church member was introduced: ‘In her free time she volunteers as a candy stripper.'” “A trustees report of a church in Connecticut: ‘The eves of the education wing need repair.'” How about one more. “A Lutheran Church announcement: ‘The Associated Ministries will hose Dr. Liebenow in an informal “Coffee and Conversation.”‘” Well, you get the point.
Typos cannot be hidden. They are right out there in front where everyone can see them. You cannot escape the comments that come as a result of your mistake. I mean, you proofread and proofread and still typos rear their ugly heads. It’s as if they were just laying in wait to catch the unsuspecting writer, and/or, editor.
I suppose that you know that the typo is a metaphor for part of our lives. How many times have you spoken when you ought to have remained silent, or vice versa? How many times have you tried to extend to someone a compliment and it came our a complaint. How many times have you told a person that you were a Congregationalist and they understood Congressionalist? We are all too human. We make mistakes. Some of our mistakes we can keep hidden from people so that we do not have to take the heat from them, but at other times there is no way of escape. The copy book is blotted for all the world, or at least as much of the world that we inhabit, to see.
Ah! Well! You cannot hide from typos. Typos are a part of life. I know only one way to handle typos and that is to smile and keep right on going, no matter how silly or how embarrassing they may be. And, I have been guilty of some of the most silly and the most embarrassing. Apologize for the typos that are offensive. Laugh with the ones that are the most silly. Correct the ones that are the most important. Learn from experience and try very hard not to do it again. But you know that it is going to happen. When you least anticipate or expect it, someone will find a typo.
(Martin Marty, “M.E.M.O., Froth and Spray,” The Christian Century, Vol. 113 No. 17 (May 15, 1996), 531.