The Great Typo Hunt_ Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time - Jeff Deck [116]
“Think Paul Bunyan ever played golf?” Benjamin asked, still eyeing the MIT building. Well, that’s one way to shatter a reverie. Once he’d brought me back to the present, though, he chuckled and said, “You really did it. Do you even realize that?”
My journey had shaken things up, had lit furious conversations among all the various factions and individuals who still cared about spelling and grammar, and that was a start. It had also revealed telling patterns about the mistakes people were making. All of that was more than I even should have hoped for from such a quixotic venture. I congratulated myself for these modest gains, and Benjamin laughed at me.
“C’mon! Going around the country correcting typos? I didn’t think you were serious, dude. Then I remember reading the blog with Jenny and saying, ‘Oh, he wasn’t kidding.’ You actually were committed. Why? How?” His laughter echoed off the stone crenellation.
I told him exactly what I’d decided two summers prior: “I wanted to change the world somehow, but editing was all I had.”
“And that’s what slays me. You started with what you had, and you … rolled with it, Deck. You started the mission, and the mission is what found you the real purpose.” Benjamin stopped. He must have seen the realization alight. I’d known the effect I wanted (fewer typos), and I’d let that effect—and my own small methods of working toward it—find its own causes. My hope pulled me into action, and the action had led me to comprehension and vision. I could never have worked this all out from the beginning.
“I figured out TEAL’s purpose is increasing clarity in communication,” I said slowly. “But the clarity of that purpose is obvious to me only now.” Benjamin, standing beside me on the battlement, had become a believer somewhere along the way. TEAL’s mission owed its new two-pronged approach to his determination, as he’d dug out the deeper educational import. I wondered what we could accomplish now.
Could we change the way the country communicates, honoring the power of the edit? If we are our words, we deserve to be the right ones.
Could we change the course of education, bringing that phonics component back? Our unkempt world needs a generation of problem solvers, and literacy is an absolute prereq.
“This is a place for starting things,” I said, gazing out at the starlight poking through the haze, the office buildings shouldering elder architecture, the city pocked with remnants of a revolutionary spirit. “I’m not sure what we can do, or what we can be.” Benjamin nodded, primed for the next adventure and already agreeing with my chimerical notions. “What do you say we find out?”
Appendix: A Field Guide to Typo Avoidance
Genus: Apostrophe Errors
Species: Missing Apostrophes
HOW TO SPOT—Whenever you see a possessive word or a contraction that lacks an apostrophe, you’ll know that this shy creature has gone into hiding once again—to the detriment of its parent word.
Dont touch that dial!
The Worlds Only Soybean Palace
HOW TO HANDLE—You must track the spoor of the Missing Apostrophe and return it to the bosom of its owner. Contractions always need an apostrophe and, except for the possessive form of pronouns, possession always needs an apostrophe, too.
Don’t touch that dial!
The World’s Only Soybean Palace
Species: Unnecessary Apostrophes
HOW TO SPOT—Unnecessary Apostrophes like to wedge themselves into plural words right before the s. These mischievous pests can’t take a hint.
We sell panini’s and gyro’s!
HOW TO HANDLE—Be cautious when approaching Unnecessary Apostrophes, but be firm and drive them out of plural words before the little critters can multiply. It’s important to keep all plural words apostrophe-free; they’ll be grateful for the delousing.
We sell paninis and gyros!
Species: Possessive/Contraction Confusion