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In teaching my Technical Editing class, I like to drive home the importance
of copyediting by providing the following statistics (adapted from "Strive
for Perfection OR ELSE!" _Working Communicator_ Summer 1992, p. 6):
* 22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next
60 minutes.
* 12 babies will be given to the wrong parents today.
* 2,488,200 books will be shipped in the next 12 months with the wrong cover.
* 18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled in the next hour.
* 20,000 incorrect drug prescription will be filled in 1995.
* 107 incorrect medical procedures will be performed in the next 24 hours.
* 315 entires in _Webster's Third New International Dictionary_ will turn out
to be misspelled.
That last statistic really bothers me (as one who depends on dictionaries for
spelling).
These statistics demonstrate that even when we're 99.9 percent certain, that
99.9 percent isn't acceptable.
Happy TECHWRling,
Hal
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+ Hal Snyder, Professor of English | Technical Editing; Business, +
+ Dept. of English (GCB 2115) | Scientific, and Technical Writing +
+ East Carolina University | ENSNYDER -at- ECUVM -dot- CIS -dot- ECU -dot- EDU +
+ Greenville, NC 27858-4353 | ENSNYDER -at- ECUVM1 or Voice 919/328-6669 +
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