December 21, 2010

Mistakes in blog posts

Yesterday when Bear read my blog, he noticed 2 mistakes; one was a word left out, the other a word spelled wrong.

*Slaps forehead*

It made me cringe because less than a month ago, I spelled a word in a post's title wrong.  Granted, mistakes happen.  Before posting, I copy and paste my blog preview into Word and spell check it. But spell check doesn't catch missing words, and for whatever reason, it didn't flag the word I misspelled in yesterday's post (I suspect it's a case of my being too quick to 'Add to Dictionary' at some point in the past). The mistake in my blog title happened because I didn't copy and paste the title over to Word that particular day.

*Slaps forehead again*

If you ever notice a mistake on my blog, whether it be a typo, a missing word, a factual error, a broken link, whatever, please feel free to tell me.  I'd much rather a reader tell me 2 hours after I post than my husband have to point it out 8 hours later.

Obviously, it is not my readers' responsibility to edit my blog posts for me; it is my responsibility to post blogs as error-free as I possibly can.  But pointing a mistake out by emailing the blog owner (as opposed to putting it in the comments — although I would still rather someone point it out in the comments than not at all) is a kind thing to do.

There is a published author whose blog is consistently riddled with spelling errors and typos. This turns me off to their work, and makes me feel they are careless at best, disrespectful of their readers' intelligence at worst.  I don't ever want to turn anyone — whether it be an agent, an editor, or a single reader — off from my work because of a mistake on my blog.  Because I'm certainly not careless.  In fact, I care very much.  But I'm not perfect, either.

What do you do when you notice mistakes on other blogs? Do you prefer people tell you if they spot mistakes on your own blog?

10 comments:

Erinn said...

I make mistakes all the time. I try to catch them, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't . Don't be too hard on yourself

Abby Stevens said...

Thanks, Erinn. :) I am a perfectionist, so I hate when I make mistakes in general, but especially with writing since that's supposed to be my profession.

And I don't want anyone to think I am down on people who make mistakes. We all do. Re: author above, I just don't like it when it seems like someone didn't even take the time to reread what they were posting. I feel like, since someone spends part of their precious time reading your work, you should make sure you attempt to deliver a quality product, you know?

Alicia Gregoire said...

I make a few mistakes and if I catch them, I'll fix. Sometimes people will tell me in comments that I misspelled something, but I would much rather them DM me on Twitter than shout it out on the blog.

If I noticed mistakes in people's blogs (except Erinn's), I'll DM or email them to let them know.

Angela said...

It happens to everyone. Sometimes I type my posts as a microsoft document first so I can run it through spell and grammar check. Of course, that doesn't elimate using the wrong forms of words.

Don't stress.

Abby Stevens said...

Alicia - I hadn't thought of Twitter, but yeah, I would much rather someone tell me via email or DM than in my comments, although I prefer them telling me in my comments to not at all!

Angela - Thanks. :) You're right, it doesn't eliminate using the wrong form of words and such, which is why I'm less worried when I simply leave a word out or use it's instead of its or something like that. But when I see things like "ew went to the bathrm," and those type of mistakes are happening on a consistent basis... well, I just don't see any excuse for it.

Pam Harris said...

I always feel awkward when I notice another person's typos--only because I know that we're human and we're allowed to make mistakes. I always feel like I'm coming across as a snotty know-it-all when I point those things out. But if you give me permission to do it for you, by all means, help me out over at my blog, too. :)

Hannah Jenny said...

Mistakes happen, for sure. So far, on my blog, it has been people I know face to face just telling me, which is fine. As far as being told over the internet, yes, I'd much rather be told than not! In general, I'm quite a good speller and my re-reading my own work is enough, but everyone has lapses!

Jon Paul said...

Happy Hodilays! And thanks for being so groovy!

Unknown said...

I always appreciate it when my bestie tells me about a mistake on my blog on gchat. It's so easy to fix, and then I can breathe easier. I've been known to go in and fix mistakes on posts I published weeks earlier, just because it makes me feel better!

But seriously, a mistake here and there is alright. That's why editors have jobs right? :)

Emy Shin said...

Mistakes happen to everybody, and I tend to overlook them in others' blog posts. I fix my mistakes when I notice them, but sometimes, I don't notice until much, much later.

I do appreciate it when others point them out to me, but am hesitant to do the same, unasked, because it might come across as condescending.

You might also like...

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...