I’m a Writer, and Writers Write

I’ve spent my life with words. Each day I read and I write. I’ve taught other people writing, from kindergarteners to graduate students. My grammar skills are better than most people’s the way a race car driver may be well-versed in car engines: I didn’t invent it, but I know how it works.

I’m also the type of person who twitches over a typo, especially those your/you’re or its/it’s missteps. Don’t hate me for it. Though I try not to judge, I’m often affected by it like a skilled musician would rather not hear a wrong note.

That being said, I make grammar blunders all the time. I make errors, and I don’t always notice them. I’m an excellent copyeditor, for other people, but sometimes I just don’t see my own errors. How embarrassing!

Once I wrote a poem about my marriage and titled it “Nuptuals.” How humbling! I happened to be privy to a blind reading of submissions at the college poetry magazine. An editor pointed it out immediately, and the blood rushed in my ears. Another editor defended it as a purposeful mistake, and it made it into the issue as is. As much as I love that poem, I’m more ashamed of the misspelling than I am proud of its getting published.

Another glaring error that stands out in my mind is the time I used the abbreviation V.A. instead of VA for the state of Virginia. How mortifying! What was I thinking? Maybe growing up in N.J., I had gotten so used to the abbreviation requiring the two periods, that I had stuck them in there without thinking. I wonder how many of those resumes I sent out, killing any chance for a job with the recipients?

 

Recently, I have been setting up my digital footprint. In a short time, I’ve started my WordPress blog, Facebook page, and Twitter account. I am so proud of my tagline, “I am a writer, and writers write,” that I use it on all three.

Oh, beware of hubris.  All over my digital footprint, I made the same gaffe, “I am a writer, and writer’s write.” Oh, the humanity. Oh, the apostrophe. How had this happened? How had I not seen it? Was I the victim of autocorrect or my increasingly bad bifocal-needing eyes? How had I made the same error in at least three different places?

You will be happy to know I have managed to correct my tagline, at least everywhere I could find it. But if you happen to see one of my errant apostrophes, help me out, would you?

You can make sure I’ve made all the necessary corrections on Facebook or Twitter! Happy Editing!