Proof-Reed, Proof-Reed, Proof-Reed

I had asked a question on LinkedIn about the most embarrassing typos that my contacts made. Here are the entries in the hall of shame: (names deleted)



Once had the phrase “Note that…” changed to “Not that…” somewhere along the chain from manuscript to newspaper. Omitting that vowel reversed the meaning of the sentence. I know the editors are under pressure to cut things to fit a limited space, but honestly.
good best


I rarely check the name for email, I just presume and let it go anyways, so I deal with competing companies and one day I emailed the quote to the wrong company. yep had to do some talking
good best


I once sent a card to my new girl friend and wrought my old girlfriends name on the card and envelope
She was mad for 3 weeks


As a copy editor at a newspaper I wrote a headline about the firing of the school superintendent:
"Discharge Climax of Months of Friction"


In a monthly newsletter to my 110 business network partners, I once encouraged them to "cease" opportunities. Of course, I meant "seize" opportunities. I think they were paying attention...as I recall our sales were quite low that month. :) This is why I don't write late at night anymore.


This wasn't mine, thankfully, but in journalism school we saw a headline from a smalltown paper about a local writer. It was meant to read "Smith's pen is mightier than the sword". Unfortunately the layout editor left out the space between the second and third words.

In my own day-to-day work I seem to get tripped up on "now" vs "not" in e-mails. Nothing like meaning to write something along the lines of "the web team will not be accepting last-minute requests" only to come back to an inbox full of them.


Well my most embarrassing typo was when I added an extra "s" to "as" during a presentation. I proof read the presentation slides, my husband and a colleague also proofed the presentation slides before the presentation and we all missed it.


I've had a few, a couple of which an on-the-ball editor caught and, thankfully, they didn't get published. In my first job as a reporter at a couple of weeklies, I once wrote "foul" instead of "fowl" about a poor injured bird on a municipal lake. It was a foul problem for the fowl and for the rescuers, yes? And then I wrote about the "damn" repairs the county commissioners were addressing - uh, make that "dam" repairs. But, yes, they were quite the pain and costly, too.

But one mistake that did appear in the college student newspaper I wrote for was about a man exposing himself to women and students at the student family housing complex. A professor made an example of my word creation that my editors overlooked as well: exhibitioning. I'm sure it went right over the heads of most of my fellow students, but a few professors and others probably got a chuckle out of my newly invented word that ran in multiple publications as I covered the story over and over and over again. For an eager, aspiring writer who prided herself in being able to write with the best of them, it was quite embarrassing.

But the professor surely could have given me a break - I was a freshman who had never reported before! Believe it or not, she became my advisor and was actually quite a good one -- and she had the pleasure of reading my work for local dailies years later.


I was covering the World Science Fiction Convention in Boston in 1989 and noted that the author guest of honor was Andre Norton. That was "corrected" by the time it reached print to Andrew Norton. At the con I attended a panel about how the media covers SF and heard my story cited as an example of ignorant reporters who can't get the facts straight. I got up and told them that *I* had it right, it was some editor who thought he or she knew better who had screwed up. I make my own mistakes, of course, but the ones I tend to remember is when someone else screws up my work.


Ali, when I worked as Head of Design at the National Gallery in London we staged a small exhibition comparing two works by Canaletto and Guardi, both views of the Piazza San Marco in Venice. As usual I arranged for large sign-written boards to be produced to promote this exhibition, which were made up in sections and then mounted on the front facade of the gallery. On the day of the exhibition itself I was called out to see the boards being put in place, only to realise that the signwriters had misseed out a crucial "A" between two sections, and the National Gallery was now proudly advertising the PIZZA San Marco to the tourists in Trafalgar Square. Ah, what memories...


It wasn't my typo but someone once wrote in a letter "I have enclouded the message" and indeed it was quite incomprehensible what the author's intended message really was about. It should have been "included", not "enclouded". I found that typo quite amusing in a wry sort of way.

When looking in the database for the fax number of a client to send him his analysis for the energy purchase offer we negotiated for him, I mistyped the client nr. So instead of company X, the fax was sent to company Y, who were both in the request-for-offer phase, unfortunately in real life they were neighbours as well, so we had some explaining to do why the offers were different.

Not so much a typo, but a search&replace action gone wrong. (Same company) When we switched from WordPerfect to using Word, we didn't realise that search&replace didn't include headers and footers. So Company B wanted to know if we were working for Company A as well. 'Why do you want to know?", was the answer of my colleague.This embarrasing moment was captured (recreated) in a sort of home video we made for the tenth anniversary of the company.

This 'problem' was solved by creating a report-template and putting just 'company name' and not the name of an existing company in it.


In high school ... In a biology test I missed two letters from the word 'organism'. Obviously my answer was read out loud to the classroom.


When I sent out a mass e-mail to top-shelf designers that were applying at our Studio, I thanked them for "peeing at out work." I have also been a "studnet" and a "quick leaner."


My favorite typo story comes from my friend Tracy who, at the time which was some years back, was working in the aerospace industry and looking for a new job. She told me that she was putting together an updated resume and would be mailing it to a large number of companies. I got a call from her and she was laughing so hard she could hardly speak. It turns out she had included her affiliation in the Society of Black Engineers...but had written it Society fo Black Engineers. This all took place at the time when the discussion about Ebonics was at its peak. I was pretty impressed that she was laughing as I think if it had been me I would have been contemplating jumping off a bridge or moving to some remote country without any telephones.
She has since had success in several fields, despite the typo.

I used to work for a municipal government and directed live tapings of council meetings. Typically we put a lower 3rd graphic on the screen with the agenda item, it was then impossible to go and remove the text, so when an intern mispelled "Public Hearing" by dropping the "l" in Public, it was not the high point of their career. While it was not specifically my fault, I was directing and didn't catch it, so the blame ultimately fell on me. Zero complaints or problems from residents or viewers though.


My 'worst' was actually intentional -
It was during two days of presentations to 100+ people from the client company, and competing ad agencies. I was assigned the deadly after-lunch opening position when most everyone would rather be taking a nap.
The assigned topic was a category review of 'Marketing Expenditures and Successful Strategies in the Soap category'. I changed the title slide to say 'Soup' instead of soap - and when the screen lit up you could here everyone gasp and hold their breath (and get a shot of adrenaline). Meanwhile, I smoothly introduced the presentation with a line like, 'successful marketing strategies are like SOUP; there is a mix of many ingredients and it's not easy to tell which are most effective when they are all combined." And as I said this I clicked to the next slide with the correct spelling to demonstrate that the 'error' was, in fact, staged.
The presentation was well-received by a highly attentive audience.


quoted 80,000 $ for a 800,000 $ deal , lucily did not win it ( sorry for the typo)


I often coordinate the evaluation of software, software architecture, subcontractors and so on, which leads to an evaluationreport. I am usually the one editing these reports, and Danes who use the word Assess, often forget the last 's', which usually leads to a bad evaluation. I have not yet let one pas to the client, however. And then I give my usual asses's' seminar.


I signed off the end of an email that was intended to pitch for new business for the company I was with at the time, and instead of typing "Warm Regards" I typed "Warm Retards".....


there's a classical example in danish grammar, which concerns the power of a comma:
"hænges, ikke benådes"
Which translates into: "to be hung, not pardoned". I bet you can see the irony of a wrongly placed comma here, although it's dificult to translate well into english.
my own involved spellcheck in danish where the windscreen became a foreskin (forruden became forhuden), with potentially catastrophic effects on an otherwise well written story. Fortunately my trust in such machines is limited, so I found it - but I never forgot the sexually challenged spellchecker again.



I still blush when I remember this.
I am not very good in typing error free. And for most part, I dont' care either. But since I am a psychologist wannabe, and am surrounded by psychologists around me, who read a lot into typos and slips of tongues, the typos make for some very insightful events. According to Freud, the unconscious reveals itself in these mistakes. I personally think that Freud was a pervert, but thats besides the point. Its what the other person thinks that makes the exchange so.........uncomfortable.
So anyways, here I was, a few days ago, writing a detailed email to a psychologist about some personal experiences in a session, discussing transference (what the client feels about the therapist, how the therapist is viewed) and countertransference (what the therapist feels about the client, how the client is viewed and experienced). I sent off the email, only to realize the next day, to my horror, that I had spelt the term "countertransference" as "cuntertransference".
I feel I am going to dissolve into the ground with embarrassment when I meet him the next time.


A long time ago, I worked at an area university and my boss omitted the "l" from a description of our school's "Department of Public Health." Luckily, we caught the error before it did any harm.
Years later, as a freelancer, I ended up working on a copy writing project for that very department. I almost missed a deadline because I was so paranoid about proofreading.


Many years ago, when "desktop publishing" was in its infancy, I worked on a brochure that included a line in small type on the back panel, "Produced by the Public Affairs Department." At least that was what it was supposed to say. We left out one letter, changing the meaning to a different type of affair. Fortunately, we caught the error, but not until a few thousand brochures were printed. They ended up in the trash can, except for a handful which I kept to remind me of the importance of having more than one set of eyes look at everything.


This has been the most interesting read in a long time (any way I can save this or circulate to my friends)
When I joined my ex company Head Quartered out of Far East, the Accountants (S) used to send a mails with the list of debtors for we had to chase for payments.
The mail always stated “XYZ company” OWN us “X” amount of money, since it was a Parent company, I did not bother to chase for a few months only to realize later that what they meant was “OWE”


Ugh, when writing letters to industry leaders requesting advice in my career development, I addressed the president of one of the largest companies in the world as Mrs when he is a Mr.


When I was in college in the 80's still had to use regular typewriter to write cover letter for a summer internship in public relations. The letter was returned with typo circled in the salutation:
Dear Sir of Madam,
instead of 'Dear Sir or Madam'.


Not exactly a typo, but close enough:
Back in my newspaper days, the head of media relations at a tech company I covered was named Bob. He was a pompous know-it-all who came from a famous PR firm. I called him one day for comments on a story and when he answered the phone I accidentally said "Hi Blob." I did the interview but after hanging up I laughed so hard I fell on the floor. It makes me laugh just thinking about it!


Once had the spell checker change Mr Unsworth to Mr Unworthy.... just as well I didnt care for the business ;-)


I once wrote to a women's group asking if they would be interested in booking me as a public speaker. I decided at the last moment to re-read the letter before posting it. I was so glad I did...
I'd missed out the letter 'l' in 'public!'


Thankfully, this is not one that I did, although I can see how easy it would be to do.
It seems that a county voting ballot in Michigan spelled "public" without the "l" in its correct place. This led to a 40k reprinting cost.


There was a great memorable one at Glamour magazine when I worked there in the 90s. Someone got really bored one night in the production room and along the gutter of the page where the photographer credit goes wrote something like "I'm so bored; I can't stand to be here any longer". No one caught it and it got published. Luckily the Editor in Chief had a sense of humor that day; otherwise the girl/guy would have been history.

One of our PMs is named Chris but people sometimes accidentally refer to him as "Christ" in emails. (i.e., "Better check with Christ to get permission to...;" or "Was Christ in the office today?" We have refrained from stoning the offenders.

My wife had a good one. She emailed me from work one day (in a hurry) apologizing for something. She closed the email with:
I am sorry
I love you
I couldn't resist. I replied asking "Why are you sorry that you love me?" Thankfully, it was a typo!!


I was working for a newspaper in my early 20s for lawyers. I left an ad sold to use the rest room and returned to wrong place. The typo result was a Moving Our Office announcement was combined with a death notice. It was horribly embarrassing but they kept there for another 8 years! Fortunately never made that mistake again! I think once you make a BIG one, you don't tend to learn from your lack of attention!


I was announcing the name change of a woman named christine fields to Christine Locker, and I stated "C. Fields is now CLocker"


I used to work for a church and put this in the bulk mail box that replaces the stamp:
Postage paid
Non-prophet organization


I once had a client whose last name MS Word/Outlook spell-checker wanted to change to "Kissable." I think I caught all of them though.


I continue to see people leave out the "l" in the word "Public." I'm very careful with this one!


Not by me but one from a former Japanese colleague.
"The XXXXX Yokohama offices will be closed on Thursday due to general erection."


Earlier this year I was helping my wife with her eBAY business and had done a listing for a very nice Tommy Bahama shirt. It went up and everything was fine, but after 5 days, NOBODY had looked at it. I checked it out, and couldn't figure out why. Finally, I got into a chat with eBAY support and they said: "Your auction isn't showing up because it is using offensive langauge." I was all over the support person -- WHAT ARE YOU TAKING ABOUT? Why would I do that. etc. etc.
Finally, she instructed me to look in one paragraph on the listing where I had left the "R" out of "shirt" when I talked about what a "high quality shirt"
Ooops. Sorry. Thanks. Never mind.
I'm more careful now when I "help" my wife write product descriptions.


I've probably suppressed all my own terrible typos deep into my subconscious where they can't torment me, because the two things that come to mind are by other people. A friend of mine made the dreaded public/pubic error in a cover letter when she talked about her background in pubic policy - then went on to note that she was attentive to detail. She was really unhappy when she realized what she'd done - after sending it!
The other error is one that illustrates the dangers of Spell Check. A proofreader I once worked with had this on her Wall of Shame, and I couldn't resist making a photocopy. It's from a solicitation letter her mother received from a local hospital foundation. "When our founders built Overlake Hospital, they helped to create a much-needed hospital for the Eastside. And during the past four decades, Overbaked has become a leading regional medical center." Yikes!


In an American Politics class ... I spelled the word 'nowadays' incorrectly ... like this, 'nowadaze' ... it was during an essay test. All the tests were essays. The class was at 7am. Not that that should matter. But the professor actually brought the typo to the attention of the entire class ... he didn't mention names, but I knew immediately he was talking about my writing ...


It wasn't a typo - it was the wrong photo of a former governor of North Carolina. Thankfully, our outsourced printing company caught the error before they were mailed out!


It wasn't quite a typo per se as much as a mispronunciation ... I was in a theory class in college for my Anthropology minor. We were in serious discussion in something or other concerning, I believe it was ethnocentrism, and while I don't remember the exact pertaining of the statement I made, I meant to say "The 'stigma' this sets is of importance." Instead, I said, "The 'stigmata' this sets ..." The Catholics in the room started rolling.


Not mine, but one of my colleagues once wrote this to a client. "We are trying to put the code and documents in sink" (as opposed to "in sync").
The client, who had a great sense of humor replied "I won't recommend that"


Many years ago a colleague was doing a pitch to the Hampshire FHSA, which was a family health strategic authority, sort of a executive regional management team across a county in the UK.
On going to the presentation he reviewed the document and realised that spell check had changed it all to "Hampshire Fish".


Brilliant answers, great question.
I once made a grammatic error in a Spanish phrase I was using in a back page ad. Not funny and very expensive.
But reading manuals and guest info in hotels in China is one of the funniest things I have done. I specially remember one in a Hotel in Kunming, China where it said that for any additional services "please contact horse keeping".


This wasn't my error (I promise!)...but several years ago I worked for a company that produced Fort Rucker's base directory. (Fort Rucker is an Army helicopter training center in south Alabama.) The base PIO submitted all of the copy, I shot the photos, we assembled the directory and printed it.
Everything looked great, until we got back all 10,000 of the copies. I was looking through the book admiring our work...and...GASP!!!...in one of the cutlines below a photo, Rucker was spelled starting with an 'F'! yes, as in...well...you can figure it out!
Even worse, 2000 copies were on their way to the base!
It was early days of cell phones and fortunately our delivery van had a phone. We caught the driver as he was pulling into the PIO parking lot. WHEW!
So, without eating all our profit to reprint it, what did we do? Glad you asked! Ten of us got all 10,000 copies and a box of fine-point art pens...and one book by one, we changed every 'F' to an 'R'!
Lucky catch...and lucky we could fix them all. THAT would have been embarrassing!!


I habitually sign off an email with a simple "Regards". Typically it was the email to a host of directors and senior managers in which I called them all "Retards" (notice how close the T and the G are?)

Hmmm... Well, I once sent a group of unsuspecting Senior citizens on a trip to "Faneuil HELL" instead of Faneuil Hall in Boston...
But my favorite, and I use it on my website because I didn't write it, is this:
"In a world of harsh competion, you only get one chance to impress…"


"pubic sector" instead of "Public Sector" on a conference brochure that went to print

Yes, it is true that one must never write late at night when one is too tired to see straight. I had to write a quick obituary for a fellow colleague at the behest of his widow. She dictated what she wanted very late at night so it could be in the newspaper the following day. She wanted it to mention that this six-foot, eight inch man was a "gentle giant." I wrote that he was a "gentile giant."
When the item appeared, she called me all upset that I was wrong. I quickly said that I may not have written what she wanted, but I wasn't wrong.


When I worked on the Air Force Military Training Center (AFMTC) newspaper at Lackland AFB, Texas, we got a new 2-star general as commander of the whole shooting match, who happened to have been an English major before he made the Air Force his career. In a 90-point banner headline, we welcomed him to the command of "AFTMC." At that point, it didn't matter how many awards we had won and how infinitesimally few typos our staff of five usually allowed into our weekly 64 pages .... the Talespinner was in a real tailspin. Fortunately, he and we got over it, but I will never forget it. And I always doublecheck display type of every sort!


The media of writing particularly with emails can be very impersonal. Once I communicated with a friend I had not talked with in a while; started the message "Hell John!"...when I meant to say "Hello John!" The message left John confused for a bit before an explanation... Proof read; proof-read; proof-read...