Verses Versus VERSUS: Why Every Writer Needs to Edit, Edit, Edit

by Julie Lavender @JLavenderWrites

Some might say “it’s a good problem to have,” but in my writing, I tend to use the word verses more often than its homonym, versus. Especially since January when I joined the read-through-the-Bible-in-two-years opportunity, STOP2Read, coordinated by our friends Edie Melson and Cynthia Cavanaugh. We often chat amongst ourselves in the commentary section about favorite verses from the day’s passage, challenging ones, puzzling verses, and especially inspiring words. I’m quite happy that my day lends itself to conversation about God’s Word rather than the need for a word that usually signifies opposition or contradiction or maybe making a difficult choice.

Which brings me to last month’s typo …. My previous column in The Write Conversation compared and contrasted writing retreats and writing conferences. Whereas both have been beneficial to my writing, finances and time constraints often cause me to choose one over the other, a difficult choice usually. 

I aptly titled me article, “Writing Conferences verses Writing Retreats – What’s Your Favorite?” (Did you catch it? Would your high school English teacher be pleased or disappointed?) 

You guessed it—I used the incorrect homophone verses instead of the correct word: versus. Fortunately, a more astute reader and editor than I am caught the mistake and reversed the error … (see what I did there?)

Why Every Writer Should Edit, Edit, Edit

My blunder brought to mind a couple of other famous (or infamous?) typos and mistakes I’ve heard about in the past. I Googled some examples to share with you, just for fun, in case you haven’t heard of these. Disclaimer—I didn’t research these slip-ups extensively, because, after all—I found them on the Internet, so I’m quite certain they’re infallible. 

Apparently, even God’s Holy Word isn’t exempt from error WHEN mankind gets ahold of His words. In 1631, a printing of the Bible left out one little tiny, three letter word: not. The problem? The typo occurred in the seventh commandment that should have read: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” And a 1795 edition of the King James Bible swapped just one letter, changing the word “filled” in Mark 7:27 to “killed,” rendering the inaccurate verse: “Let the children first be killed.” 

A three-letter word, one letter. No big deal? Not hardly.

Not letters, but transposed numbers in a 1955 Sears advertisement in a Colorado newspaper led to a child’s phone call to a top secret military number, known only to a colonel and a four-star general at the Pentagon. “Is this Santa Claus?” the youngster asked. An angry Colonel who didn’t like pranks, a heartbroken child’s tears, and an eventual call to the local radio station resulted in the birth of a Santa tracking system.

Another phone service disaster didn’t have quite the happy ending. Well, perhaps it did eventually. In 1988, the owner of a travel service sued the phone company for $10 million dollars due to the mental anguish and misery she experienced when her yellow pages ad typed one wrong letter to erroneously describe her “exotic travel services” as a different type of travel service completely. The company refunded her $230 ad fee, and the judged awarded her request of $10 million. 

In the 1925 novel written by Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy, based on a real-life murder case probably had more than one typo on its 900 pages, but one particular error described two characters as “harmoniously abandoning themselves to the rhythm of the music—like two small chips being tossed about on a rough but friendly sea.” 

Some written typos and blunders are comical—in quite humorous fashion, social media boasts throngs of them (good thing I remembered the “r” in that word just before “of” or we’d be discussing a totally different aspect of social media). But a huge number are costly and embarrassing, and a host of them show a lack of professionalism and editing proficiency. 

Edit, Edit, Edit, Repeat. 

Mistakes happen. If you find a typo or written blunder in your published works, give yourself grace and strive to do better next time. Here’s a few editing tips, in random order, to help you watch for those pesky slip-ups and errors. (These suggestions address typo-type blunders, not big-picture ones like plot in fiction and misunderstanding in non-fiction. Nor do these tips address searching for unnecessary adverbs, weak nouns and verbs and so on. Make sure to include these points in your editing process, too!)

• Set your manuscript aside for several days or even a couple of weeks. When you read it again, you won’t be as “close” to the words you wrote and glaring errors might jump out at you. You’ll be less likely to skim right past the mistakes if you aren’t anticipating the next word you wrote. 

• Read your manuscript aloud. You’ll be surprised how many mistakes you catch that way!

• Check the spellings of specific words like ebook or eBook and the capitalizations of Deity pronouns and be consistent throughout the manuscript. You can do this easily with a couple of word-search or “find and replace” clicks.

• Print out your manuscript and edit a printed version, rather than just reading on the computer. 

• Read the work backwards. This method often catches misspelled words or misused homonyms. Read word by word for spelling errors or read sentence by sentence, from bottom to top, to check grammar without the distraction of content.

• Check one error at a time. Go through the whole manuscript looking only at end punctuation. All good? Then move on to subject—verb agreement. Next, study each word for spelling accuracy. Additionally, check for common blunders, like they’re versus there versus there. Also, you're versus you’re. Don’t forget it’s, its, to, two, and too, too. And for goodness sake, check words like “public” and “throng” to make sure every letter shows up!

• Share your manuscript with a critique group. Someone unfamiliar with your work will catch typos and mistakes on a first-read, ones that you’ve read right past a hundred times because of your closeness to the piece.

Now it’s your turn. What’s your worst writing blunder? Share with us and join the conversation. We want to learn from your mistakes, to. (Just kidding … checking to make sure your still wearing you’re editing hat.)

I’ll share one more of mine. Not in publication form, but a texting error. I once sent a sweet friend an encouraging text late at night in anticipation of her very serious surgical procedure the next morning. I ended my text, “I’m praying for you, my dead friend.” Needless to say, I was mortified!

TWEETABLE

Verses Versus VERSUS: Why Every Writer Needs to Edit, Edit, Edit @JLavenderWrites on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Julie Lavender is thankful for her husband’s red pen, the brilliance of her Word Weavers critique sisters, and English teachers of the past. Without their help, she might not be the author of Children’s Bible Stories for Bedtime and Strength for All Seasons: A Mom’s Devotional of Powerful Verses and Prayers, both published by Penguin Random House; 365 Ways to Love Your Child: Turning Little Moments into Lasting Memories, published by Revell, two children’s picture books forthcoming from End Game Press and its imprint, and other publications.