Editing in real life

Every week, I struggle to come up with an idea about what to write about it my blog, and this week my inspiration actually came from a lady who I helped in the store where I work.

Imagine your a former English teacher, and you see signs at restaurants or at stores that have spelling and grammar mistakes. What do you do?

Well, this woman has actually gone into those restaurants and stores to talk to management to get them corrected.

The example she gave was going to a bulk food store and seeing a couple of signs with the work "kernal." On one sign she saw that an attempt was made to correct it, with the "a" scratched out and replaced with an "e," while on another it was left incorrect. She had a conversation with the management about the error to try to get it corrected.

Would you have the courage to do the same thing?

Forget numbers, try Nadsat

Yes, numbers can be a real challenge when it comes to editing, but what if you were editing a novel or short story in a strange language or unusual slang.

Just take a moment to think of how you would react, if you were handed a manuscript that is mostly filled with typos and errors (I mean so full of typos and errors that it is barely understandable). That is what happened with Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. The main character undergoes a medical treatment to improve his mental abilities, and as he improves, so does the writing of the novel.

Or what if the author come up with his own slang. How would know that "horrorshow" means good? Imagine how the editor for Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange felt the first time he or she read the manuscript.

Other jobs that are similar to editing

After our discussion in class last week, I spent some time think about other jobs that have an editing component:

1. Buyers for stores

Buyers have to make sure that merchandise are appropriate for the individuals frequenting the store and likely to buy items. A recent example is from Zellers where children's clothing was pulled off the shelf after it was found they contained sexist and vulgar comments.

2. Pharmacists

Pharmacists can prevent the wrong medication from being given to a patient. Some treatment packages can contain medications that a patient has an allergy or sensitivity to, when it occurs, pharmacists will do all they can to contact the physician to make changes to the prescription.

3. Elections staff

The election staff have to make sure the laws are followed and the people are voting in the right polling stations. They must treat all members of the public justly and fairly and react to any concerns at the polling stations.

Copy and code

The more time I spend online, I realize how important both copy and code editing is to make the experience better for those using the program or the website.

My last week's post showed an extreme example of a coding error, but they are more common than you think.

• broken and missing links
• formating errors
• unexpected changes in fonts

These seemingly little errors can be just as devasting to a company's or individual's reputation as numerous copy errors.