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65 reviews for:
The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time
Jeff Deck
3.18 AVERAGE
65 reviews for:
The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time
Jeff Deck
3.18 AVERAGE
A very interesting and entertaining book, with the added side effect that now I see (even more) typos wherever I go.
I picked this book up for the title. I loved it but am now slightly afraid to write about it because I can't spell worth a darn (thank you computer for the lovely red line that appears whenever I truly misspell a word). But it frustrates me when people don't care enough about what they put out in the world to look at it twice before releasing it to the public.
Back to the book: I enjoyed the story involved as much as the need to correct the typos, but I think what really made the book fabulous to me was the evolution of the mission. We are all besieged by doubts at times, and that the authors agreed to share their doubts and the evolution of the mission based on expressing and exploring those doubts, took the book beyond a recounting of someone's adventure to the deeper exploration of how people respond to criticism of their environment (not them, just their environment).
It can be difficult to police yourself, you know what you are trying to say so even when rereading you can unconsciously forcibly correct it as you read. I hope I haven't embarrassed myself here, I am, at this precise moment, SUPER paranoid about my grammar and punctuation use.
Back to the book: I enjoyed the story involved as much as the need to correct the typos, but I think what really made the book fabulous to me was the evolution of the mission. We are all besieged by doubts at times, and that the authors agreed to share their doubts and the evolution of the mission based on expressing and exploring those doubts, took the book beyond a recounting of someone's adventure to the deeper exploration of how people respond to criticism of their environment (not them, just their environment).
It can be difficult to police yourself, you know what you are trying to say so even when rereading you can unconsciously forcibly correct it as you read. I hope I haven't embarrassed myself here, I am, at this precise moment, SUPER paranoid about my grammar and punctuation use.
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
This funny hero journey is exactly the kind of real-world quest that is so fun to read. I love that they use the word "Orthographer". Although communication precision is important to me, I've never known that word. Now that I know it, I plan on owning it, making a home for it in my life, and espousing the orthographic lifestyle wherever I go.
My daughter and I are snarky in our disdain for printed errors, but Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson have helped me see that there is really only redemption if there is teaching. My hat is off to them for taking such brave steps to make the world clearer. I've made some inroads in the classroom, and a few tentative steps via Facebook posts (where I come across as a know-it-all.) I'm sure people want to delete my corrections, but really, I do it because my friends are worth so much to me. I want the world to see them as terrific as they really are -- not as lazy, inattentive, or uneducated, which they are not. As Jeff Deck writes, "Everyone deserves to be understood," (p. 167).
What's an orthographer to do?
My daughter and I are snarky in our disdain for printed errors, but Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson have helped me see that there is really only redemption if there is teaching. My hat is off to them for taking such brave steps to make the world clearer. I've made some inroads in the classroom, and a few tentative steps via Facebook posts (where I come across as a know-it-all.) I'm sure people want to delete my corrections, but really, I do it because my friends are worth so much to me. I want the world to see them as terrific as they really are -- not as lazy, inattentive, or uneducated, which they are not. As Jeff Deck writes, "Everyone deserves to be understood," (p. 167).
What's an orthographer to do?
The author's heart is in the right place, and this is a good first effort. At times, though, the reading is tedious, telling, and too "me" oriented.
I was disappointed with this book. There was only enough material for them to have written an article.
I didn't expect this book to be a treatise on grammar and its socio-political implications. I thought it would be a fun read about two friends that fixed typos around the US.
I learned a lot of new words reading this but Jeff Deck's use of some of them seemed heavy handed. By his own narrative, he says he is not an in your face kind of editor, but the entire theme of the book seems to contradict this. It kinda felt he was using them to prove how smart he was. Not a terribly appealing trait, but that might be only my own personal foible.
I think he got the short stick when it came to the Grand Canyon sign debacle and his bitterness over it is clear. I also commiserate over his feelings to how he was treated during his short stop in Mobile, AL, where I lived for some time. The uneducated apathy is rampant there.
I learned a lot of new words reading this but Jeff Deck's use of some of them seemed heavy handed. By his own narrative, he says he is not an in your face kind of editor, but the entire theme of the book seems to contradict this. It kinda felt he was using them to prove how smart he was. Not a terribly appealing trait, but that might be only my own personal foible.
I think he got the short stick when it came to the Grand Canyon sign debacle and his bitterness over it is clear. I also commiserate over his feelings to how he was treated during his short stop in Mobile, AL, where I lived for some time. The uneducated apathy is rampant there.
This book would have made a great essay.
(I heard the authors on NPR and they sounded very interesting. I am an ex-proofreader, so I can empathize with the desire to fix typos. However, the book just did not hold my interest. Since I only skimmed it I am not rating it.)
(I heard the authors on NPR and they sounded very interesting. I am an ex-proofreader, so I can empathize with the desire to fix typos. However, the book just did not hold my interest. Since I only skimmed it I am not rating it.)
I liked the concept a lot, but it seemed strung out a bit too long - maybe I felt like that because the mock-heroic style got on my nerves after a while.
Far too political to be any fun, even for a self-professed grammar nerd.