When Mistakes Happen

Mistakes: we all make them now and then.

Last week was one of those weeks, a time in which I caught (too late) at least two mistakes in emails I sent. One email was to a co-worker; I typed and sent “This look great.” I might have taken the time to proofread before I hit the “send” button, but that didn’t happen. Subjects and verbs should be in agreement, especially in work-related messages.

That week, too, right as I pressed “send” for another email, my eye landed on a word I’d used incorrectly – it’s instead of its. At the moment I saw the error, the email was probably already in his inbox (too late again).

While it is nice that I, eventually, found my errors, I needed some way to prevent them. The situation had to be improved. A resolve to reread emails (like proofreading or editing an essay) before sending seemed logical enough. Then I thought about other ways to come closer to impeccable grammar, a personal goal. That’s when a memory surfaced.

I was eight or nine years old and in elementary school. The teacher was concentrating on grammar. What I did then was try to incorporate the lessons she taught into my everyday life each time I learned a new rule. Without really knowing what I was doing, other than being determined to get an A, I was reinforcing the right way each time I used a new rule correctly at home or on the playground. It is possible that my spoken words might have become somewhat odd then, maybe even stilted on occasion; but using what I learned paid off in time, most of the time anyway, even if not last week when I was sending emails.

Repetition of correct usage makes a major difference. By the time a writer has discovered and corrected several of the same type of grammatical errors, it’s probable that the original tendency to err will have been replaced by a tendency to use the right grammatical construction in the first place.

No one truly loves to be criticized or corrected; but when I really think about it, any time someone does legitimately correct my grammar, I’m given a chance to know and subsequently use the right form. I can convince myself to use corrections and try to be thankful for them, even though finding out I’ve made mistakes isn’t exactly as much fun as watching perfect waves roll onto the shore on a sunny day when grammar concerns are far, far away.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!