PoliticsThe IndependentJoe Biden has answered half as many questions from the media as Trump has, report findsSince 31 August, Mr Biden has answered 365 question compared to the 753 answered by the president…

…you lose credibility.

Don’t see it? It’s an embarrassing editing miss, that’s for sure!

Mr Biden has answered 365 question compared to the 753 answered by the president…

Wow, I caught myself in a very humbling mistake recently (actually, someone was kind enough to point it out to me), and it was a difficult experience, and it made me predisposed to be kinder to people who make mistakes while being professional writers. I mean, hubris, I feel it! It happened to me! Story follows.

Still, looking at that text from The Independent, whoever it is, and wherever it is from, it’s, like, ouch!

Most mistakes will be corrected in the second draft or subsequent drafts. Don’t think you can publish your first draft. No one is good enough. I can’t even write correctly myself in first-draft mode, so take heed: Always read over your work before you print or publish. Always.

So, here’s the story of my mistake. When I was on my big publication spurt a couple of (4) years ago, I wrote a paragraph or two about the benefits of going to church, and suggested everyone attend. There are a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the literate nature of the proceedings. We read from old books, we sing old songs from old hymnals, and I have often spoken about my love of being a lector. In fact, I’m going to be lector this week! Great passage from Isaiah.

So I wrote this little blurb about church. And just typed it directly in the book, you see; I just wrote it right in. First draft. My mistake! Instead of my “process” of writing my content in Word, editing it two or three times, and then putting the content into another format for publishing, where it’d be edited again…I just put it in. The fruit of my genius! But, to my astonishment, my book manuscript started to spell-check this new material…in French. Just that one page. Every word, pretty much, redlined. I couldn’t find the place to turn that function off, or when I found it, the setting wouldn’t hold…I can’t remember exactly, but, bottom line, spell-check was redlining every word, pretty much, and I looked at the situation and thought to myself, I know what I’m doing. I don’t need spell-check.

And, by God, I kept going. Ignoring every one of the 30-some-odd redlined words, I kept going.

So, for four years, turns out that one of my books has had a misspelled word: liturgy. Ugh! Can you believe it? I spelled liturgy wrong. I just assumed I was perfect and let it fly. I ignored that last step to perfection. Because I was too proud. Thought I was already at perfection! Talk about humbling! As hard as I try for my writing to be above reproach, hubris got me too.

Got me bad!