Silverman (whose blog today highlights a hilarious "Hadron Collider"/"Hardon Collider" typo at Reuters) seems to have done a fair bit of research on why humans make errors, and what can be done to correct them.
Silverman said that one thing we should bring to error is a sense of curiosity, rather than excessive shame, which would keep us from analyzing its causes.
Also, he basically offered stories about how the complexity of many of our systems is now too much for our brains to manage, particularly when we are under pressure. As a result, one of the main tools we can use to avoid errors (whether we are heart surgeons or decidedly less life-and-death-dice-rolling proofreaders) is the humble checklist.
Silverman also offers a free accuracy checklist for writers and editors here. While I haven't run this post through it (heh, heh... hm) I feel somewhat saved. Alleluia! I've seen the (red-pen) light.
"This One's For the Editors: Regret the Error Seminar"
1 Comment -
Thanks for attending my workshop. I'm glad it was helpful, and I wish you best of luck with your checklist-aided editing!
June 5, 2010 at 10:29 PM