Calling All Grammar Groupies!

By Writing Center Staff

Do you ever get really annoyed with grammar and spelling mistakes you see in advertising? Do you ever just wish you could fix them? Well, back in 2007, friends Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson traveled across the country in search of mistakes, misspellings, and typos in public signage. Once they found a problematic sign, they actually corrected it—with permanent marker, Wite-Out, anything that was on hand—in the name of the greater good. Last fall, Deck and Herson released a detailed log of their journey as The Great Typo Hunt (read more about it here).

With inspiration from these guys, we at the Writing Center are embarking on a little project, but we need your help. When you’re walking down the street, visiting a new town, or otherwise going about your day-to-day life, look around you at the signs. If you notice a misplaced apostrophe, unnecessary quotation marks, misspelled words, confusion of there/their/they’re, or any other grammatical error, snap a picture with your digital camera or phone. Send it to writingsupport@waldenu.edu, and each month we’ll post the best photograph on our blog (with proper credit to the author, of course). Just remember that in doing so, you agree that (a) you are the photographer and (b) we can do what we wish with your image. No snagging from another website; we want real-life snapshots from your surroundings! And please don’t correct the typos yourself. As Deck and Herson discovered, you can get into a lot of trouble for that.

We’ll post the first photograph on March 15th. Let the hunt begin!