Let's Have Some Fun While Editing

My life has taken a turn over the past few months. I have a book idea that I'm itching to write if I can ever find the time. I am honing my editing skills. What would be a fun way to do this, I ask myself? Find huge gaffes online and post them here!

That's right. I'm on the lookout for spelling errors, improper use of quotation marks, exclamation points, horrible grammar... whatever is horribly WRONG so we can post it for the world to see.

I know we all make mistakes. But some mistakes really deserve to be pointed out so we can all learn from them. Like the one I saw right after the earthquake in Chile on CNN.com. I wish it was still there. I wish I had copied and pasted it when I first read it... alas, I did not. They caught it before I went back and edited the article.

Suffice it to say the sentence went something like "... decided to AIR on the side of caution..."

That's right. To air on the side of caution. Um. Yeah. The phrase should be "...to ERR on the side of caution..." That is all they needed to do. Instead they rewrote the entire paragraph.

So... if you come across any gaffes that you just can't believe or that made you laugh out loud, send them my way by posting them here with the URL. I'd love to see them. In fact, I think this could grow into a really fun, big project that will leave everyone rolling in the aisles (definitely not isles!) while we may learn a bit about our wonderful language. C'mon... who wants to play?

I can't possibly do it all alone. There aren't enough hours in the day. Send 'em in and we can all have a good laugh. :)