No matter how many times you’ve proofed your work, chances are you’ve overlooked something. Before handing your copy off as final and approved, consider having someone with a fresh set of eyes proof your work so you can avoid costly or embarrassing typos.
The $250,000 typo
Several years ago, New York City transit officials printed 80,000 subway maps without proofing the final file. This proved costly. The newly printed subway maps listed the minimum cost of a pay-per-ride card as $4.50. The rate was actually $5.00. The typo wasn’t caught by anyone until the maps had been printed…all 80,000 of them!
Transit officials pulled the maps from distribution, had the typo fixed, and re-printed the maps. And according to the New York Post, the cost for correcting this typo was $250,000.
Paying a proofreader would have cost the city’s transit authority a lot less!
An unintentional discount
An upscale chain of stores not only aligns the stars for its television spots, but thanks to a costly catalog typo, they aligned the stars above for a few lucky customers.
According to WFAA-TV, the retailer mailed out their catalog to customers advertising a “Super Buy,” and was it ever! Thanks to not having the catalog proofed one last time, a very big typo managed to slip through listing a $1,500 necklace for the low, low “Super Buy” price of…$47!
The retailer eventually caught the error and stopped fulfilling orders for the necklace…but not until a few very lucky customers got in on this deal!
A 500-point typo
This is an excellent example of why you should always have someone else proof your work, no matter how little copy is involved.
NASA had a banner created for the 2007 shuttle launch with only two words: GO ENDEAVOR! And one of those words was misspelled.
This particular shuttle’s name should have included a ‘u.’ The British spelling was a nod to the HM Bark Endeavour commanded by Lieutenant James Cook on his first voyage of discovery to Australia and New Zealand in 1769-1771. The name also honored the Command Module of Apollo 15, Endeavour.
So what does a 500-point typo look like? Huge. And it didn’t go unnoticed. USA Today may have said it best with their headline: “Houston, We Have a Typo.”
Snow in June?
My personal favorite was posted in a ten-day weather forecast for Chicago. The forecast: “Flurries or snow showers possible early.” It was Thursday…June 25, 2015! I can safely say that it did not snow in Chicago that day.
Typos happen all the time, but they can be avoided by having your work proofed, and proofed again. Writers can’t catch every typo because they’re too close to the content. But proofreaders check the copy with fresh eyes, ripping through it looking for typos. That’s their job, and oh how proofreaders love their jobs!
