Thursday, March 2, 2017

Facepalming for Precision

Zestful Blog Post #201

One reason I love modern times is how fast a new word or usage can get around—provided it’s a word or usage I like. Mostly I love invention. One of my favorite terms, born, it appears, around the turn of this century, is ‘facepalm.’ I get so much satisfaction and amusement when I see it; it’s just so blunt, economical, and natural. But sadly, I find myself needing to facepalm too often. I facepalm mainly when confronted by sloppy spelling and usage. It’s everywhere. In the past week alone, I’ve facepalmed at least twice.

The first was while reading a bestselling memoir, in which the author describes a favorite dress when she was a little girl. It had pretty ‘shearing’ on the front. WTF? This got past the author, her editor, and the copy editor? Three professional word people, at least two of whom probably had MFAs? Nobody knew WTF ‘shirring’ is? And nobody thought to go, “Huh, I’ve never heard of shearing being on a dress. How can shearing, which is a verb, be a feature on an item of clothing? Maybe I should look it up. And if I can’t find some kind of reference, maybe I should simply pick up the phone and call a tailor, or my Uncle Spiff, who loves to sew.” It isn’t even pronounced like shearing, it’s pronounced ‘shurring.’ (Shirring is a gathering of fabric to make tiny humpy rows. You’ve seen it on little girls’ dresses and Uncle Spiff's aprons.)

Another facepalm occurred while reading the magazine Popular Mechanics. An article about a new ‘smart’ bazooka referred to the weapon’s ‘breach.’ WTF, nobody caught that either? Breach means a gap, basically. ‘Breech’ is the word for the rear end of the bore of a gun. (BC, thanks again for the gift of that mag.)


[In the case of a revolver, as here, the breech is exposed when the cylinder is released. Photo by ES.]

What is the core issue here? A lack of general knowledge, I think. Am I wrong? Spell-check will not catch misuses like these. I would not be upset reading these errors in a middle school student’s paper. But professionals are supposed to know better. What is the solution? That people should read more and pay attention more? Help me. How can this situation be improved? Philanthropists like to donate money and assistance to the arts, and they like to donate money and assistance to the eradication of human scourges like disease and hunger. Can all the money in the world fix shearing instead of shirring? I know that even the repeated abuse of shearing instead of shirring will not result in a child going hungry, or malaria claiming another million victims. So it cannot be very important. Yet I facepalm. And I facepalm.

OK, but! I just had a pretend conversation with the copy editor of the shearing book, and do you know what he said? He said, “Oh, my God, it was horrible. You have no idea how many mistakes I caught and corrected! That one slipped through. Sorry.” I feel better now. A little bit.

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14 comments:

  1. Took me a moment to realize what "facepalming" meant. I don't believe I've come across it before. But, now that I know, yup, I do it all the time. Sometimes it's really a typo, but so often it is a misused or misspelled word that, as you noted, slipped past the professionals. I get tired of seeing 'discreet' and 'discrete' being used interchangeably.

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  2. Think you hit said nail on the head - lack of exposure. Been pitching editors and think I found the ONE. Whoa, the words we toss around casually, don't be doing that around a serious editor. These (mostly) chicks really mean business.

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  3. Veronica, glad you stopped by. God yeah, discrete seems to be taking over. And Cordia, that's fabulous news re: editor!!

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  4. What is face palming?

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  5. Re that imaginary conversation with the editor? Bless you. People Only notice what he/she missed. I know. I'm an editor too. Love your musings.

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  6. Darlene, thanks for stopping by. I've done some editing as well, so yeah.

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  7. Anonymous! Facepalm: When you cover your face with your hand in exasperation or despair.

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  8. Another reminder that I need to keep reading. Always enjoy your blogs and find them helpful reminders of things to keep working on. Thanks!

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  9. I recently caught myself almost using the phrase "marshall arts" instead of "martial arts." Thankfully, it was just in an email to a friend so the embarrassment level would've been low but still - yikes! :)

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  10. Ah, shirring! Actually, I'm more used to the term "smocking" but yep, some things get right by even the best of editors, I'm sure. I'm glad you had that imaginary talk with that editor and came to an understanding. I know my editor would call me on stuff like that--shes' that good--and I think I'll keep her!
    I hadn't heard of facepalming until you mentioned it. It's like some other things, it came into being because it fits.

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  11. By the way, I just gave a friend who's just starting to write a copy of your book "You've Got a Book in You." I found it very helpful when I was writing my first book, and she already said she's finding it helpful as well. I heartily recommend it to any writer, but especially to anyone just starting out. Commercial over. Thank you.

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  12. Bev, welcome as always. Madeline, I too have caught myself using a homophonic spelling; the horror... And Betty, yes, 'smocking' is a good word too. Thanks so much for sharing YGABIY with your pal!! XXOO

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  13. You have to admit that English is a difficult language. I've studied Spanish and French and I found them to be much easier. Puns? Really, did English have to do this? (But they are fun, sometimes.)

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  14. Patricia, you're right. Re: punning, the rule is this: If somebody makes a pun, it's dumb. If you make a pun, it's funny.

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