Everyone accepts that spelling mistakes and typos occur in life, it’s only human. To be thorough when you are working you should spell check your writing work, proofread your writing and then have a second pair of eyes proofread it as well.
You should do this because if you proofread your own work, you’ll probably read what you think you wrote, rather than what you actually did write.
This sort of proofreading should be done for the printed word such as newspapers and magazines, and really should be done on web copy. However, when writing signs, signs that will remain in place for several years (and in the case of the below sign at Blackpool Pier, for decades) you can’t really afford spelling mistakes.
Yet a spelling mistake was indeed made on the sign on one of Blackpool’s Piers. The sign reads:
“We must go back indoors now, your getting too much exposure”
As we write this, even Microsoft Word has spotted the error and has underlined the offending word in green. “Your” is possessive, the correct word should have been “you’re” – short for “you are”.
Incredible then that the more common mistake of writing “to” instead of “too” wasn’t made, so the sign writer at least got that part right. This sign has been on the pier for years, teaching generations of children how not to spell – demonstrating what a responsibility writers really have. Is it any wonder we have problems in the UK with literacy?
A little time, effort and care and attention to professional writing and mistakes like this can be avoided.
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