Here's a little exam, to help you determine if you need to enroll in an English language summer school refresher. Please count the errors in the following statement:
"The Janets World column about errors in flier's is annoying. Its not like she is a qualify language expert."
You only need to be able to identify three to pass the Janet's World English Standards test (there are more). This is because we are not perfect here; we understand how easy it is to make embarrassing errors because we have made many. And some are frankly hilarious.
For example, recently a reader wrote an e-mail to me about an op-ed piece I had in this paper. I try to respond quickly to all of my e-mail, so I fired back that I was especially grateful to receive his comments, because I'm not paid for the essays I write somewhat regularly for The Sun's op-ed page. I gain only the benefit of the exposure to all Sun readers on that page.
This sounds fine, and not objectionable in the least, until you add my unfortunate typo, which I have copied here for your reading pleasure: "My editors sexplained that they could only offer me exposure."
I believe this sexample underscores the value of proofreading in the brest possible way.
