A. James Editing, Inc.

BBC News reports that spelling mistakes in professional business communications (especially websites) can be extremely costly.


As a freelance copywriter, articles like this are near and dear to my heart. (Thank you, Mike, for sharing this.)


Read the amazing article here.

In an effort to ease its budget crisis and reduce its $419 billion debt, the Greek government has approved a series of drastic tax increases and spending cuts. The Greek people, however, were not asked what they thought of the plan and are rising up in protest at the cuts to their income.

Much thanks to the BBC for bringing us this important news, but may I offer a soft critique? Hire another proofreader. The few that you have missed some key things in this article.

The three things that I found were the placement of abbreviations, lack of consistency in comma usage and simple grammar. I’ll outline the errors in that order.

The International Monetary Fund is mentioned twice before the abbreviation, IMF, is given. It is common practice in any kind of writing, whether it be thesis, book or online news article, to give the abbreviation immediately after the term first occurs so the writer can then use the abbreviation throughout the rest of the article instead of having to retype the entire term (this might be more important in print media as space per article is very limited).

There are two instances when the author of this article could have used a serial comma (placing a comma after every item in a list) or not. The author used a serial comma the first time, but not the second. Using one over the other is not necessarily right or wrong, but having a lack of consistency in your usage is definitely not professional. Serial comma usage:

The measures include rises in sales taxes, a cut in holiday bonuses paid to civil servants, and a pensions freeze.

No serial comma usage:

Rises in taxes on fuel, cigarettes and alcohol

The last item I noted was a simple grammatical blip; a matter of the word “a” versus the word “an”. In the following case, “An” would be the correct word to use.

A increase in sales tax from 19% to 21%

Good luck to the Greeks in sorting out what is both best for the people and for the future of the country.

The Huffington Post has published a very informative article about gluten and its disruptive effects on the body. Little does Dr. Hyman know, typos have a disruptive effect too…at least they do to me.

Simply eliminating this insidious substnace from your diet, may help you achieve lifelong vibrant health.

I love that alliterative phrase, “insidious substance”. The misspelling of substance I could do without though.

To learn more about my body, I recently underwent an elimination diet wherein gluten was eliminated for about three weeks. On the day that I reintroduced it, I found that I had to pee urgently and often. I suppose that means I have a mild-severe reaction to gluten. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

The Huffington Post has published a very informative article about gluten and its disruptive effects on the body. Little does Dr. Hyman know, typos have a disruptive effect too…at least they do to me.

Simply eliminating this insidious substnace from your diet, may help you achieve lifelong vibrant health.

I love that alliterative phrase, “insidious substance”. The misspelling of substance I could do without though.

To learn more about my body, I recently underwent an elimination diet wherein gluten was eliminated for about three weeks. On the day that I reintroduced it, I found that I had to pee urgently and often. I suppose that means I have a mild-severe reaction to gluten. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Good evening gentle reader,

For those of you familiar with my blog and those of you who aren’t, I am a freelance copywriter who has until recently highlighted errors in news articles. I call it “Typos in the Nuwz…I Mean News.” Perhaps you’ve seen them around the WP blogroll. No periodical has been safe, The Huffington Post, The BBC, Fox News, MSNBC and even AOL News. I’ve critiqued their typographical errors, clarity and consistency. That’s been fun and the pictures are usually pretty, but I would like to add another facet to my blog: typos in books. In addition to being a copywriter, I am also a trained proofreader and avid reader. Do you see where this is going?

My trained eye picks out errors whether I want to or not and I must must perform the appropriate proofreading markage and make a note to myself at the top of the page. I said it was a gift in my last post. I might have exaggerated a bit and perhaps “curse” is a better word to use.

The first installment will begin…tomorrow! Muahahaha! Now I’ve got you hooked! Which book will it be? The blameless author? Which publisher was careless enough to let these bedeviled blemishes make it to print?!

Find out all that and more tomorrow on A. James Editing!