There are a lot of jokes made on Facebook about grammar – and it's general lack of use.
In the past, people didn't really know if their friends or family failed at spelling and grammar because we didn't spend so much time reading words we once said aloud.
So for a writer, like myself, who corrected my family's spelling publicly on Facebook, it's been a challenge to back off and just let people be. I only found myself doing that after pages were created making fun of people like me.
The grammar police, they call us.
I found an error in my column last week. It was published and went out that way.
ERRRR.
So frustrating – especially for the editor of a newspaper. Truth is, most typos happen because a writer is rushed – and more into what they are saying than how it looks on the page.
Most people can't proof their own writing anyway. Our eyes read what we remember writing, not what we actually typed.
I admit the Press Gazette, years ago, was known for its typos. Around the year 1999, I wrote a caption under a photo when Jane Judy-Miller, a beloved Santa Rosa Medical Center administrator, won an award. In the caption it said, "Jane Judy-Miller, chief cursing officer for the Santa Rosa Medical Center was presented Woman of the Year."
Chief cursing officer. Spell check didn't catch it, obviously. So I caught it later – and ended up apologizing.
Recently, we ran a headline that said, "Police: Teens face charge for public sex". For days, I looked at that headline and thought it sounded like we were suggesting teens would be charged a fee if they want to be intimate in public.
Reporters develop a weird sense of humor after doing the job for a period of time. I guess it's a defense mechanism for all the bad stuff we must share with our readers. Sometimes when I get a press release saying someone has been killed in a car accident, I want to begin my story by saying, "More than 158,000 people did not die in a vehicle crash today in Santa Rosa County."
But it doesn't work that way.
I began a Good News page and it has run several times in our paper. That is something I've wanted to do for a very long time. I hope the public will continue to support it and send in their good news. Tell us about someone who did something nice for you.
Pretty soon, a program started by the current Leadership Santa Rosa class is going to begin. You may find someone handing you a card one day that says they just did something nice for you, randomly. The card suggests you do the same for someone – and pass the card on.
If you get one of these cards, call our Speak Out line or send us an email and let us know what happened.
We would love to share the good news.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Woman on the Edge – Sharing the news