Raise your hand if you think proofreading is a dying art.
Actual headlines …
• Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter … that is one talented murderer
• Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says … Good thing they called in an expert.
• Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers … that’ll stop ’em
• Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over … very noble of him
• Miners Refuse to Work after Death … rest in peace
• Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant … well, if Scared Straight doesn’t work, then they are just about out of options
• War Dims Hope for Peace … such Negative Nellies
• If Strike Isn’t Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile … yes, I think that might be correct
• Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures … those crazy global warming nutjobs are at it again
• Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide … or was it Colonel Mustard?
• Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges … must be some kind of Super Duct Tape – and it comes in designer colors. Sweet!
• New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group … weren’t they fat enough?
• Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft … if he dealt it, then he should!
• Kids Make Nutritious Snacks … do they taste like chicken?
• Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half … they are strict there!
• Hospitals are sued by 7 Foot Doctors … because the ceilings were too low?
• Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead … Wait. What?
Got any more good ones?
14 thoughts on “Proofreading”
I think your too quick to judge on that Enfield (London) story… It might have been a rampage of frustrated pandas.
I saw one last week: “Judge tosses verdicts against grocer.” I wonder if he threw tomatoes back.
The Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges I thought was quite clever. But that’s just me.
It is true I jumped to the conclusion that there was no editing on these, but I suppose they could be the product of the funny bone of some headline writer. Actually, that would make me very happy. Let’s pretend all of these were written to give newspaper readers a laugh to share over their morning coffee. Yeah, let’s do that.
I’m not sure it counts since it was caught before printing, but I once had a typesetter who typed the line on a registration form that ‘cancellations must be made in writhing’
Wes … I’m not quite sure I understand. Am I not to make my cancellations in writhing any longer?
I read this at work and I was giggling. like a church giggle. Embarrasing
There’s a joke around about a single seater plane crashing in the cemetry and rescuers finding 300 bodies and still counting
If you shared this during a presentation at a writers’ conference, the audience would be hard to quiet down. My cheeks hurt from laughing!
LOL, Jill! Maybe there’s a new headline in there somewhere…
Oh, my gosh, Becky. You just make my day! 😊
Then I will consider this day a complete win!
Thanks for reading!
Proofreading has become a dying art, even in the writing profession. I have gotten many ebooks that were loaded with typos. For me, that detracts from the story and has caused me to stop reading books by those authors. I appreciate those who take the time to edit properly.
Everyone is always in such a hurry that sometimes they don’t read and edit as carefully as they should. And I’ll tell ya, some of those typos are tenacious little buggers!