A. James Editing

As most of you are aware, some Toyota vehicles have a dangerous defect that causes cars to accelerate rather than slow down when the brakes are applied. This new evidence could vindicate Koua Fong Lee of St. Paul, MN whose Toyota Camry hit the back of a car, killing three of its occupants, in 1996. He has been in prison ever since. Read the full Huffington Post article here.

True to form, I found an error in this copy. It’s not a typo this time but a matter of a comma that could have been employed to make this sentence read a little easier.

Attorneys for both the 32-year-old St. Paul man as well as the victims’ families say they’re encouraged by the evidence that the problems went beyond models that originally were recalled.

I would have added a comma after “families” like this:

Attorneys for both the 32-year-old St. Paul man as well as the victims’ families, say they’re encouraged by the evidence that the problems went beyond models that originally were recalled.

That’s all.

For those of you who have yet to read Going Rogue by Sarah Palin (not to be confused with Going Rouge by Nation editors Richard Kim and Betsy Reed), not to mention all the alleged falsehoods stated in the book, there’s a typo on page 150 of this hardcover memoir.

Or maybe have the local Girl Scout troop volunteer to chop to them down.

However distracting two “tos” can be, this doubling is not to be blamed on Palin. The finger is to be pointed at the copyeditors and proofreaders at HarperCollins for letting this slip through.

Actually it’s the dilemma of Penguin Press. How dare they let a typo go in The Omnivore’s Dilemma! Don’t they know it’s a classic? Typos in classics are egregious and so many people will be witness to their mistake.

Apparently Michael Pollan wrote:

If I crossed two corn plants to create a variety with an especially desirable trait, I could sell you my special seeds, but only once, since the corn you grew from my special seeds would produce lots more special seeds, for free and forever, putting me out business in short order.

Surely what Pollan was trying to say was, “…putting me out of business in short order.” Yes, that looks much better.

Whoo hoo! So rare to find a news article without any typos. It’s time to celebrate! An article published by The Associated Press on MSNBC entitled “Obama vows to address record deficit woes” has not a single typo. Read it for yourself and then tell me what you think. I couldn’t find a single one.

As a copywriter and editor, it’s my job to find all manner or grammatical errors and smite them wherever they be. What makes my job a lot easier is if there are none to begin with. Such occurrences are worthy of praise. Kudos to you AP. Nicely done!

I am just returning to my blog after a very extended holiday season. As WordPress has been very good about informing us and as many seasoned bloggers already know, if you want your blog to be seen you have to blog…often. I have broken this cardinal rule and I must now pick up the pieces.

For awhile I was blogging everyday and then I went home to Minnesota for the holidays and all my good habits vanished. I woke up late, spent my days lounging with family and friends and completely neglected my website. When I returned home to Portland, I spent my time focusing on my work. Though that should have included keeping my website fresh, it didn’t. I return to it now with due diligence. I hope my viewers, few as they may have been, will not begrudge me my absence and continue to visit my site.

Good afternoon, good evening and good night.

Amber