The Great Typo Hunt

by Jeff Deck

  Why? In part, because the program hasn’t sold itself effectively. It still makes people uncomfortable, in spite of repeatedly proving to be a superior model. Teachers in particular worry over the loss of their autonomy, but the Hollywood ideal of the heroic rogue teacher succeeding amid widespread failure needs to be beaten back to make room for a school system where everyone wins together. While teachers might fight DI at the outset, the program often changes their minds, thanks to a couple of key factors. First off, since the lessons are scripted, there’s no prep time needed. Teachers are overworked and underpaid as it is, and this can take some pressure off. Most teachers have to do their lesson planning on their own time. Second, and more significantly, DI works. Once the teachers see how effective it is, how specific changes in their method can make a huge difference, they tend to come around.

  “What can we do?” I wondered as we drove back to my apartment.

  “Somehow, we can help.” My friend was silent a moment, but then erupted in typical Benjamin fashion. “Thing is, President Obama recently kicked off his ‘Race to the Top’ initiative. Grants for the K-through-12 schools that seem to be performing the best. Education’s a huge priority because—like health care and energy—it’s a game changer. They’re the issues that dig tentacles into other issues and make it impossible to fix anything else first. This is a time of opportunity. Mark my words, a lot of things are going to change in this next decade—either by our being smart enough to change them how we needed to, or when we’ll be acted upon by larger forces. This is everyone’s moment to fail or succeed, and TEAL’s gonna have to find its place in that. We’ve got to get the website back up soon so that we can find our people again.”

  I needed the blog, partly for opening my thoughts to feedback from everyone who cared like I did, but also for writing out my thoughts in the first place. That’s the way my thought process worked best: text-based, writing and editing on the page.

  As we worked to resurrect the website, reliving our typo memories one by one, I said, “For the second tour, we’ll include more people from the start.”

  “Try to score corrections in all fifty states?” Benjamin suggested.

  “That’s an idea,” I said. “But this time around, it’s going to be about more than just the corrections. It’ll be an Editor’s Quest. We’ll show everyone the marvels that can be wrought by simply taking a second look.”

  “By the way,” said Benjamin, “you owe me at least one state on the Appalachian Trail. Keep some white space in your calendar for … 2011?”

  I promised I would, then returned to my musings. The dimensions of the League’s possibility opened wide, straining against the tissue of my frontal lobes. After all our adventures and misadventures, I could picture multifarious, multifaceted destinies for TEAL—the push for Direct Instruction, yes, and another tour, but there were additional promising actions that we could carry out even sooner. As she’d offered more than a year ago, Jane could help me put together compelling games and videos on the Internet that would spread education in the same viral fashion that typos themselves often operated. By jingo, I could craft entire narrative worlds around the concepts we had learned, the issues we had stumbled upon, such as clarity’s vital role in communication and the importance of awareness, of patience and care. Everything that touched typos could be scaled out to universal proportions and eventually scaled back again, the way language itself functioned as both a tool and a bellwether of humanity. Like English itself, TEAL could swell its boundaries and encompass all that needed a place to belong.

  We took a break from our website work and went on a walk around Somerville. Night had fallen. We wound up at the Prospect Hill castle, a monument built on the site where, on January 1, 1776, General George Washington raised the first flag of the thirteen colonies—in essence, the first American flag to fly anywhere across this land. The lights of Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston sparkled below us and before us in the darkness, a fabulous patchwork of gems that would not have made for a bad Rocks & Minerals spread. The tops of Boston’s highest towers disappeared into cloud.

  “Quite a different view than what Washington must have seen,” Benjamin said, marveling at the electric panoply. Sirens sounded behind us somewhere in the thicket of Somerville streets. Beneath the parapet, homeless men mumbled and played in the trees.

  “If you look straight ahead, you can see where I used to work at MIT.” I indicated a squat tower in the foreground of the river with a golf-ball-shaped atmospheric radome on top. “You know, once upon a time,” back when I’d felt like the only one stuck in place, surrounded by people with purpose. Then I’d headed to Hanover, where my classmates had roused me to action. Strange that by now they must have all heard that I was a criminal. I could finally laugh about it now: ten thousand dollars for a comma and an apostrophe. And we didn’t even get to keep them.

  Contrary to what the Park Service thought about us, both Benjamin and I had a sharp interest in bygone times. My friend noted wryly that this castle had been built in 1903 to celebrate a historic site—the commemoration itself decades older than the supposed priceless artifact at the Grand Canyon. Still, while Benjamin was upset that fellow outdoorsmen had considered him an enemy, I’d been disappointed by the mutual shortsightedness. We’d made one mistake, and they’d trumped it. It had left me with a sense of an error uncorrected, a resolution never quite reached.

  “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

  HOW TO SPOT—Some contractions and possessive forms of pronouns sound like each other. If you are aware of their auditory camouflage, though, you can still see them when you look at the words.

  Why did the cat chase it’s tail?

  Your my best friend.

  HOW TO HANDLE—Familiarize yourself with the most commonly confused pairs of words: its/it’s, your/you’re, their/they’re, whose/who’s. In case of doubt, see if you can break the word into two words: e.g., will “it is” or “you are” work in place of the word? If you can break it into two, it’s a contraction and needs the apostrophe. If it can’t break in two, it doesn’t need the apostrophe because it’s the possessive form of a pronoun.

  Why did the cat chase its tail?

  You’re my best friend.

  Species: Misplaced Apostrophe

  HOW TO SPOT—These well-meaning critters have a poor sense of direction and just plunk down wherever when they find the end of a plural possessive word. They are often found sitting in front of the s when they should let the s connect to the word to show that it’s plural. Or, some Misplaced Apostrophes sit down after the s without considering that the word is already plural.

  The girl’s uniforms were dirty after field hockey practice.

  the womens’ secret society

  HOW TO HANDLE—First decide if the possessive word is supposed to be singular or plural. For a possessive word that already has an s, just tack the apostrophe on to the end to make it possessive as well. If the word is a plural that doesn’t have an s (the word itself is a plural form), add an apostrophe and then an s, just like you would to a singular word.

  The girls’ uniforms were dirty after field hockey practice.

  the women’s secret society

  Genus: Misspellings

  Species: Junction Errors

  HOW TO SPOT—These mutants are the result of word experiments gone terribly awry. Two word parts, such as a verb and a suffix, have been incorrectly joined together. With an understanding of phonics, you can recognize Junction Errors right away, because their misspelling leads to mispronouncing them.

  Dinning room

  Next-day shiping

  HOW TO HANDLE—There are rules for determining how a root connects to a suffix. Though there are exceptions, here’s the general set of rules:

  For a word ending in a double-consonant, just add on the suffix

  befriend + -ing = befriending

  friend + -ship = friendship

  For a word ending in e, drop the e if the suffix begins with a vowel (this eliminates a confusing double-vowel sound)

  loose × -en = loosen

  loose + -ly = loosely

  For a word ending in a consonant-vowel-consonant, double the last consonant if the suffix begins with a vowel (this is so the short vowel sound can be indicated by the double-consonant)

  ship × -ing = shipping

  ship + -ment = shipment

  Hence:

  Dining room

  Next-day shipping

  Species: Homophone Errors

  HOW TO SPOT—These insidious sirens lure an inattentive speller to the rocks of blundering with their familiar song. Homophone Errors happen in writing when a word is confused for another perfectly valid word that sounds just like it.

  Don’t slam on the breaks!

  I’ve got a splinter in my heal.

  HOW TO HANDLE—Since the “wrong” word is still spelled correctly, spell-checking software will overlook these mistakes. So might your eye. The only way to spot these is by carefully rereading your work (see “The Art of Editing,” below). Simply checking over what you’ve written is a grate, er, great way to catch these mistakes.

  Don’t slam on the brakes!

  I’ve got a splinter in my heel.

  Species: Common Misspellings

  HOW TO SPOT—The horde of Common Misspellings is diverse indeed: words with transposed letters, single letters instead of double letters, wrong vowels, and so on.

  Restaraunt, cappucino, independant, definately, Sahara Dessert …

  HOW TO HANDLE—Assuming you weren’t taught with phonics (and sometimes even if you were), you’ll need to have memorized the antidote to every individual Common Misspelling, of which there are hundreds. Until we’re capable of adding “extra memory” to our brains like we do with computers, why clog up precious mental resources? Instead, have a dictionary ready. This is the weapon that can neutralize the hobgoblins of misspelling. First, merely notice whenever you’re unsure of a word spelling, then consult the dictionary to help you cast the proper spell…ing. If no dictionary is available, at least consult another person nearby. Sometimes multiple people can determine what “looks right” to the computer-brains we already have.

  Restaurant, cappuccino, independent, definitely, Sahara Desert …

  Genus: Agreement Errors

  Species: Article/Noun Disagreement

  HOW TO SPOT—Article/Noun Disagreements are mischievous imps that specialize in tripping up the tongue. The wrong choice of a v. an before a noun will sound funny.

  a apple

  an banana

  HOW TO HANDLE—To make a/an agree with the noun it precedes, you want to avoid a double-consonant or double-vowel sound. If the noun begins with a vowel sound, it takes an (which ends with a consonant sound) in front of it; if it begins with a consonant, it takes a (a vowel sound). This is why words beginning with a silent h also take an. The sound combination makes the words flow together better when spoken.

  an apple

  a banana

  Species: Subject/Verb Disagreement

  HOW TO SPOT—Subject/Verb Disagreements sow discord between the two most important parts of a sentence. They are tricksters that cause a singular noun to wind up with a plural-form verb, or vice versa.

  The lime are tasty.

  Lemons is good for you.

  HOW TO HANDLE—Don’t let your nouns make the wrong choice for their verb mates, or things are likely to get nasty. If the noun is singular, be sure that the verb that goes along with it is in singular form as well; if the noun is plural, give it a plural-form verb.

  The lime is tasty.

  Lemons are good for you.

  Bonus: Style and Savvy

  Care and Feeding of the Common Comma

  When it comes to clarity of communication, commas are vital companions. An omitted comma in a list will cause confusion (such as the perplexing item in the middle of this shopping list: “bread, lasagna, turkey carrots, milk, O.J.”). An extraneous comma can change the meaning of a sentence entirely (“Give me a piece of that apple, cobbler”).

  However, to stop at the comma’s purely technical usage is to discredit the surprising powe
r of this humble breed of punctuation. Commas can be a marker of an individual writer’s style and voice just as surely as the words she is using. When you want the reader to rush through sentences, use commas sparingly. When a more leisurely, intricate pace is called for, plant more commas. Wherever you’d like the reader to take a breath, deploy a comma. You are shaping the voice the reader hears in his head.

  The Art of Editing

  It’s a good policy to go back and read over what you’ve written. You’ll easily spot true typographical errors, and you’re likely to spot other mistakes, too. A general check is helpful not only for catching misspellings or grammatical mistakes, but also for enhancing general readability. The first look back is a chance to ensure that your text says what you want it to, which is about more than just catching technical errors. Were you clear in what you meant? Is your message easy to follow?