
Everyone has their grammatical pet peeves. At Asylum, for example, we've made our feelings about some forms of punctuation quite clear.
But even our hatred of the exclamation point pales in comparison to the aversion Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson have toward poor spelling and grammar, in general. In fact, their obsession is so intense that the two college buddies set out on a grand journey across the U.S. to hunt for and correct misplaced apostrophes, typos and other syntactical atrocities.
"I threw together a 'typo-correction kit' with markers and correction fluid, began planning the journey and saving up, and in March of 2008, The Great Typo Hunt began," Deck tells Asylum. He and Herson (who dubbed themselves the Typo Eradication Advancement League) loaded their equipment into an old '97 Sentra and set out on their ostentatious adventure, now documented in their new book, "The Great Typo Hunt."
"We'd stroll into a neighborhood and just check out their signage," says Deck. "Places with high text density were usually where our assistance was needed."
Each time the self-appointed grammar police spotted a typo-eyesore, they'd pull over, hop out of their car and determine whom they needed to speak to in order to make a correction. Continue reading for more on the hunt, as well as a list of their top 10 grammar/spelling mishaps in America.
"Many of [the people we talked to] proved informative, fun and fulfilling, making that my favorite part of the experience," explains Herson, who met Deck in a creative writing class 10 years ago. Though reactions were positive for the most part, Deck and Herson were sometimes met with resistance when confronting people about their poor grammar. Common responses flung back at them included "It's not a typo -- that's how you spell it"; "Fixing it will make the sign look bad"; and "No one's ever noticed it" (aka "No one has ever actually mentioned my sorry grammar to my face").
On the other hand, some of the more agreeable the grammarians confronted actually fixed the signs right on the spot.
Deck and Herson's voyage took them from New Mexico to New Orleans to South Carolina. Naturally, we figured we'd ask which state needed the most assistance when it came to spelling and grammar.
"The truth is that across the board, everyone could really use an editor," says Deck. "The bigger difference wasn't by region, but more along the division between big chain stores -- which have pre-printed signs that all the stores have to put up, and independent businesses, which don't have the professional signage and so, of course, have more typos."
Deck and Herson compiled a list of the most frequent errors encountered along the way:
Top 10 Most Common Typos in America Today
10. Subject-verb disagreement: Lemons sure is tasty.
9. That place where you go to eat: Restaraunt, restauraunt
8. The double-letter fumble: They're shiping dinning room furniture.
7. The A-for-E sabotage: America loves its independance.
6. The confusion of tasty treats and arid sands: Try our homemade deserts.
5. The misplaced apostrophe: womens' secret society.
4. The wrong "your" or "you're": Your the best at you're job.
3. The wrong "its" or "it's": Its in a class of it's own.
2. The missing apostrophe: mens fashions
1. The unnecessary apostrophe: We sell hundreds of car's!






























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Comments:
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Thursday 19 August
By john
Don't axe me!
Reply
Thursday 19 August
By fldpwrman
these may not qualify, but were stupid signs on/in the same store after remodeling. Huge banner "Re Grand Opening" and in the meat dept a sale on "Semi Boneless Steaks"
Reply
Thursday 19 August
By Debi
Don't you mean the WORST one? LOL
Reply
Tuesday 13 September
By Sunny
My pet Peeve is the use of the word WITH. Can I come WITH or Do you want to come WITH? WITH WHAT?
Reply
Thursday 19 August
By alicia
OMG! My husband says that all the time and it drives me absolutely nuts!!
Thursday 19 August
By Eric G
Another great non-story from AOL.
Reply
Sunday 22 August
By Bob
Yes. Fun though. And no one should be inSALTed.
I, a teacher, recall making a vertical sign about 12' long to be seen by the year's graduates as they reentered the school from their outdoor graduation which proclaimed (case sensitive) "conGRADulations" . My fellow teachers thought it clever but the headmaster made me take it down as she feared there would be parents who wouldn't 'get it'. The few students who had already seen it were flabbergasted - they felt it was taken from them.
Thursday 19 August
By la
no the worst is confusing adverbs with adjectives. Example:
"How are you" reply "I'm good"
"How are you" requires an adverb not an adjective as a reply
correct response is "I am well"
Even worse is "I'm doing real good".....ow!
Reply
Wednesday 01 September
By 55buffaloes
You should have further explained that "really well" would have been correct. Some people wouldn't have realized the point you were trying to make.
Thursday 19 August
By nancy
The most common error I notice is "Colombia." Years ago I saw it mispelled "Columbia" at the National Zoo in DC. Recently, on the Weather Channel they mispelled it "Columbia" when talking about the recent plane crash in Colombia.
Reply
Thursday 19 August
By Grumpy
I fine it fumy when pipple hoo caint' spell rite in to comment on uther pipples' pore spellin and grammar. LOL
Reply
Wednesday 01 September
By 55buffaloes
You ewes words that are knot reel words. I half knot misspelled
any word inn these too sentences.
Thursday 19 August
By imjustsayin
gud 1!!!
Thursday 19 August
By Tammy
I think it annoys me the most when people add two words together. Like "alot" or "atleast". A lot of people should at least know this much. :)
I'm sorry, but I'm also giggling a little bit regarding the person above who spelled consonants wrong.
Reply
Sunday 22 August
By Antone Grieco
How about anymore, or alright? However, sometimes I wonder whether already was once all ready. All most = almost? All together = altogether? I resist changes in English also. But it irks me to see more than one question mark at the end of a question, or more than one exclamation point. And three periods in a row (...) constitute an ellipsis, which should be punctuated with spaces around it as though it were a word. "Typo" is short for "typographical error."
Thursday 19 August
By Mindy
While shopping the other day, my 10 year old daughter caught a mistake on a sign made by the meat department.....
Drumbsticks on sale!
She asked for a pen so she could mark the "r" out of the word because she said apparently whoever wrote it was dumb!
I don't know what made me chuckle more: The sign or her interpretation of the situation. At least I'm getting my money's worth at that private school!!
Reply
Thursday 19 August
By Jepchamp
These are not typos! A typo is when you accidentally hit one key instead of another. These are mistakes, and they happen because the average American can't spell and doesn't know basic grammar.
When they remodeled my local supermarket, I noticed a beautiful new sign above an aisle that said "Stationary." I informed them of the error and they had the sign corrected. (For those of you who don't get it, when you mean paper and envelopes, etc., it's spelled "stationery.")
Another very common error is "would of" or "should of." It's "would have." People tend to say "would've," and the ignorant just assume it's "of." The thing is, the word "of" makes no sense there.
LOL, Donachuk: you misspelled "consonants."
Reply
Thursday 19 August
By JO
Actually, the sign didn't say...it read. Not that the sign could to either :)
Thursday 19 August
By Mandy
Congratulations, Jeff and Benjamin. You have addressed one of my biggest pet peeves, and I commend you. Thank you for trying to fix our country's grammer and spelling issues one horrendous sign at a time!
Reply
Thursday 19 August
By Julie
I can't believe you spelled "grammar" wrong!