From a text I was editing earlier today:

She was a certified translator of French and Italian documents, particularly those relating to the Western tenants of European intellectualism.

Oooh…I just love this kind of typo, where the author has used a legitimate word but it is the wrong word for the context.

Did you catch the error? It talks of Western tenants, but really, the word should be tenets. Obviously, the author didn’t mean to reference a person who pays rent to a building’s owner. They meant to reference a principle or belief—a tenet.

Other Fun Catches

Another fun catch I’ve come across, where it is a legitimate word but in the wrong context, is using covenant instead of convenient. I’ve also seen constellation when it should be consultation, and stickers when it should read sticklers. See how fun editing can be? It’s like a treasure hunt as you try to spot the errors. There is such satisfaction in finding a doozy!

Lucky for the author of the above typo, they had hired Editor Nancy. I’m a master treasure hunter when it comes to spotting typos of various kinds.

It’s back to the hunt for me—I’m working through a Russian thriller.