Howlers in Print
Ouch! Bad Examples
Okay, not exactly howlers. Chucklers, maybe.
These are some of the kinds of mistakes I look for when I line edit—and you should look for them too, when line-editing your own work. These mistakes are not from work I received to edit. (What happens at BKEdits stays at BKEdits.) They are all from already-published work, some so good that it hurts to run across these mini-howlers. Everyone goofs now and then, but someone should have spotted these before they made it into print.
Have a look and see if you catch the error in each line. Answers below.
1. Michael Madoff's audacious Ponzi scheme...
2. "nine for the price of ten" loyalty cards...seduce customers to buy more
3. ... called her uncle in the middle of the afternoon balling like a child.
4. I'm bored, you see, towing the line.
5. [Her] connection with the earth was tenable, at best. Already she was faltering.
6. The ocean below him may have seemed endless, but [he] knew it would only be a matter of minutes before Australia rushed into view
7. .. [the presence of] the voices inferred there was still time
8. ...but someone breeched that point of entry.
9. She heard the ladder creek behind her...
10. has the beauty that Renaissance painters liked: fulsome with long red hair.
11. But it was only a moment before she honed in on destroying the detective and his testimony.
12. ...a couple of cows with engorged utters.
So, what's the problem?
1. Should be Bernard Madoff. Plain factual error, a brain typo, possibly because of confusion with another famous money man.
2. Nine for the price of ten? Some loyalty card!
3. Kids do play with balls, but bawling, (crying) is what's meant here.
4. Should be "toeing the line." To toe the line is to keep to your required stance, like a soldier at attention or a runner at the start of a race. To tow something is to pull it, like towing a car.
5. Probably meant to be a tenuous connection. A tenuous connection is a flimsy, thin one; a tenable argument or plan is a reasonable one.
6. Should be, "might have seemed." The past tense of may is might.
7. Should be, "implied there was still time." A person or event may imply something, but it is the person who notices the implication who does the inferring: "Should I infer from the look on your face that you're not happy?"
8. Someone should have breached that point of entry. Breeches refers to trousers (a pair of breeches) or buttocks (breech birth). To break a barrier, or make a gap in a wall, is to breach it.
9. Should be creak. The noise is a creak; the stream is a creek.
10. Hard to tell. Probably should be full-bodied. Fulsome usually means overdone and tasteless, like fulsome praise.
11. Should be homed in. You hone a knife to sharpen it; you home in on a signal. Merriam-Webster.com is much more forgiving of this one than I am.
12. Truly weird. To utter something is to say it. A cow's milk bag is an udder.