Thursday, November 13, 2008

Ofthe* (for Of the*)

Today's typo exemplifies a unique category of typographical error, the smooshing of two small words together without the necessary space. This is a thing which it is not good todo. Most small words, fortunately, are helper words, such as prepositions and articles, and they don't carry much meaning. They aren't often searched except in a phrase or perhaps by people like me who spend too much time looking for typos.

A search in WorldCat.org reveals a whopping 3,549 instances of this typo. Our reference database, OhioLINK, has 102.

Picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/denverjeffrey/3000563617/

Jeffrey Beall

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