CORRECTIONS
Here are the errors in fact, grammar, syntax and style that a good copy editor would have caught.
Paragraph One: Six errors.
Opening line should begin “if you are like me,” not “like I.”
No hyphen in “financially troubled.”
“Downsizing” should be lower case.
“Budget-cutting” should have a hyphen.
Syntax requires moving “desperation” after “budget-cutting.”
“200-decibel” should have a hyphen.
Paragraph Two: Four errors.
“They” has no antecedent; should read “publishers.”
“Copy editors” is two words.
The phrase “I, for one,” needs two added commas.
Paragraph Three: Eleven errors.
“Copy editors” should be two words.
“Scoop” has an incorrect open quotation mark.
Comma needed after Scoop.
“Semiliterate” has no hyphen.
Comma needed after “semiliterate.”
Should be “and wearing a wrinkled suit” to correct impression that it’s his teeth in the suit.
It’s “fanny,” not “fannie.”
“Hatband” has no hyphen.
HE would generate HIS stories, not “they” and “their.”
“His” writing skills, not “their.”
Paragraph Four: Six errors
“Mightn’t,” not “might’nt.”
“Typos” should be lowercase.
“And not letting sentences run on” is bad parallelism.”
“Principal,” not “principle.”
“Copy editors,” not “copyeditors.”
Grotesque cultural insensitivity in the line about Jewish women.
Paragraph Five: Four errors.
A comma is needed after “Jr.”
It’s “highfalutin,” not high faluting.
Yale is in New Haven, not Princeton.
Copy editors is two words.
Paragraph Six: Two errors
“True fact” is redundant.
“At all whatsoever” is redundant.
“Continued” line is an error: One error.
Paragraph Seven: Six errors.
“Inessentialness” is not a word.
“Spell-checking” is hyphenated.
“That” have introduced, not “which.”
“Whole,” not “hole.”
“Pen is” not “penis.”
There is an extra “to” in the last sentence.
Paragraph Eight: One error.
The entire paragraph is repeated from above. Since it will not be individually copyedited again, this counts as one error only.
Paragraph Nine: Nine errors.
“Badly” should be “bad.”
“Who,” not “whom.”
“Jobs,” not “job.”
“Passed,” not “past.”
There is errant baseball type included.
“Copy editors” are two words.
“Any more” should be two words.
“Automated” and “machines” are both redundancies.
Paragraph Ten: One error.
It is upside-down.
Paragraph Eleven: Eight errors.
“Copy editing” is two words.
Wish “you” a soft landing, not “them.”
“Shout-outs” has a hyphen.
“Myers,” not “Meyers.”
“O’Brian,” not “O’Brien.”
“Copy editors” is two words.
“The” Washington Post, not “the.”
“Much,” not “muck.”
The Headline: One error.
So, we get the 59 errors enumerated above, plus one more, to total 60: The final error is that we said there were only 57 errors.
Copy writing and editing is difficult. But that’s not the only moral of the story here.
Experience matters.
If you want to be a Responsible Marketer, you need to be casting responsible. That means choosing the right resource to do the job based on what needs to be done—no more, no less.
These resources—a blend of your in-house team, contractors and agency relationships—should all be cast based upon their relevant experience and what needs to be done to execute your marketing strategy.
This may seem kindergarten simple, but I see the contrary nearly every day. Committed in-house marketing staff are asked to do it all and aren’t given the resources to do it all well.
So they write copy.
And design flyers.
And fiddle with HTML.
And conduct surveys.
And manage events.
And edit copy.
And try their hand at SEO.
And so on.
Everyone on your team should be playing to their strengths—and someone that knows how all the pieces work together should direct everything.
So, how did you do on the copy editing quiz?
And, what does casting responsibility mean to you?
