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Old 04-13-2009, 07:15 PM
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Gatofeo Gatofeo is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Remote Utah desert
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I was a reporter for 12 years, from 1985 to 1997.
When I worked on weekly papers, I also put the pages together, using galley for columns and a Compugraphic machine to create headlines.
From personal experience, I agree that typos are common. The best way to eliminate typos is to get someone else to read what you write. It's easy to miss your own typo or mistake.
I'm still a big believer, if time permits, in printing out the rough draft and reading it on paper. You'll spot more errors on paper than you will onscreen.
Some words I call, "Trip Wire Words" because they can get you in major trouble if you omit one letter. Alas, the new version is a word itself and not caught by Spell Check.
Trip-Wire Words include:

Public becomes pubic as in, "The mayor will give a pubic address ..."

Count becomes a very nasty word with the omission of one letter. The daily I worked on made this mistake one day -- one very ugly word repeated in 40,000 issues, distributed over a wide region!

In the 1880s it was reported in a London newspaper that the "Queen passed over the bridge."
Alas, one letter got replaced and the Queen ended up doing a bodily function over the bridge!

When I worked on papers, reporters and ad artists came to me if they had a gun question.
I caught many .9 millimeter, 30 Odd 6, 357 Magi, 410 gauge, 22 caliper, shootgun, Rugger, Smithon Wesson and other mistakes.
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