Careful, NOW....

Lately I’ve been wondering about whether or not it’s the little things that count. Sure I make errors on what I write but – I just shake my head when I read stupid mistakes: Why can't people be careful – particularly the newer to PR types?

Sure, you heard your parents mumble that at one time or another, but I'm talking about writing. Nearly everything I read has errors in it - and not because Microsoft Grammar Check stopped working its magic. I see a lot of carelessness emanating from PR people thinking (I think) that someone else is going to make the document perfect.

Who is this someone else?

While everyone makes minor goofs, I see major ones all over the place, and they're uncanny. I'm here to ask every communications professional to take a third and fourth look before hitting the "send" key or printing press releases on super-fancy copier paper. I got reminded of this by some smart alec who anonymously wrote in about a cut-and-pasted PR release on BadPitch that had a misspelled word on it from one of my OWN people.So what’s it all about?

Some say it's the fault of e-mail. Sounds like a big excuse coming on. People pass their documents back and forth and add rather than correct.

Since I am part of the last generation to use typewriters (man I miss my IBM Selectric on rainy days) and once rejoiced at the invention of BIC's Wite-Out (a.k.a. Liquid Paper), I place blame on those large monitors on our desks. There's no way you can catch a boo-boo onscreen, but most folks won't print out the written work.Today things travel casually, desk to desk, until the work goes out without someone realizing, "Wait, wait. That's supposed to say AUNT." (That's a private joke for "Curb Your Enthusiasm" fans.)

Me. I am a kind of typo savant. I see them out of corners of my eyes. As a matter of fact, where my mate and I live part-time outside LA, we laugh at crazy errors on "cable ready" Time Warner ads constantly. I see them in staff and management reports - I was born a proofreader - where folks create documents using wrong words, or worse, being grammatically incorrect. If an author doesn't even bother to use Spell Check I know s/he is simply sloppy.

Recently I have come undone by some doozeys that found their way to me from unexpected sources.

Witness:LA Times: A front-page Cars section advertisement that was nearly a quarter of a page; It actually said LOVE WHAT YOUR DRIVING.

Re/Max calendar: I got it in the mail - a mean feat because it was octagonal and printed with verve and style. Problem: The proud real estate professional calls herself YOU'RE DESERT REALTOR.

Time magazine: As Ms. Stewart headed to prison, it had a corner headline that read MARTHA'S JUST DESERTS.

Showtime: In announcing the first episode of a new season of "The L Word," the words blaring onscreen spoke of the upcoming PREMEIRE.

Needless to say, it's crappy PR to present a sloppy example to the public. Not only does it debase your reputation, but it necessitates an embarrassing conversation with your CEO or client.

I'm not going to get into the incorrect usage of "less" and "fewer" in multitudes of costly print ads, nor the occasion a few years ago when The New York Times ran a Sports Friday section on Saturday morning.

Books are worth discussing, since most are edited "from afar," where committees babble haughtily about plot or mis en scene or arc.

Nonfiction tomes are merely about the phrase everyone can use at cocktail parties (like, err, Blink).

A few years ago, a book by a current Wired "reporter" on how companies steal corporate secrets contained so many made-up words (Exon, as in Valdez) that I had to put it down.

Editors don't feel like taking their time even though that's their job, and this holds true for PR professionals who are sending communications initiatives - be they press releases, e-mails or PSAs - into the mass marketplace.

All that cash lobbed at voluminous printing, expensive promotions and massive PR efforts, and what does it do in the end? It turns people who notice errors right off. In cases like mine, products or parent companies are never purchased (from) again.

All right, I definitely make mis-steaks but I don't trust my under-caffeine-ated self and hand my work to several others who are more awake than me and who will be glad to attack my words with a critical eye.

I'm not trying to be all Ben Bradlee about this . I just like to read, look up, and watch TV without observing typos that stop me cold.

To some, it sounds like bellyaching, but being careful and deliberate is essential in this day and age.

I paraphrase Tony Soprano's shrink Dr. Melfi in a third season episode: Indeed, Americans get caught up in the little things. The big ones are all taken care of, and so we're very lucky!

We have ability to focus.

That’s my civics lesson for today. Forgive me for ranting. Anyone care to disagree?