<p>Relax. If you read it a dozen and found no errors what are chances Admission will notice. They don't really have time to peruse over proper English.</p>
<p>My department writes and publishes our own marketing material. In a brochure sent to nearly 5000 people we misspelled Community...commmunity. There must have been 20 people read this thing before it went to print. We noticed it 6 months later. No one who red the book even noticed. </p>
<p>That kind of stuff is just missed alot of the time.</p>
<p>I do know that I would post on CC more often if there was a spell check! My first professional app. I used "inept" rather that "adept". In the interview I was kindly!! asked if that was what I meant.. and I was hired even so....
My S had an error to his first choice--even though it had been read many times--I freaked but he did get accepted.</p>
<p>As others have said, I would not worry. Content will be what matters most to admission staff.</p>
<p>I understand what everyone's saying to reassure about how, in real life, common errors and typos happen. But I can also see how 3 typos on match and reach schools is really disheartening at this moment, especially for someone who's learning to deal with "careful" issues. She might get in or not here and there, but if she doesn't you'll long believe it was because of those 3 typos.</p>
<p>It;s just my opinion, but I do like the idea of your D phoning the Admission offices herself, to ask permission to send a replacement (no typos) essay. Try to get the answer at the clerical level; no need to ask an Admissions Officer. It's really a filing question, and one they're used to I'm sure.</p>
<p>At her age, I coached my kids to begin such calls this way: "Hi, I have a problem, and I'm hoping you might be the one to help me solve it, if we can work together." It compliments the person in the office and predisposes them to help. People like to help.</p>
<p>If they seem ambivalent about accepting another essay, she might press just a bit (sweetly, no whining voices) to describe by phone exactly how it happened because of the 2 computers (hers was failing so she used Mom's which has the spellcheck underline turned off). That's just so understandable! </p>
<p>She could ask if they think it's better to send in a clean new essay, or staple a one-sentence note to it about the 2 computers. Follow their advice.</p>
<p>Each school might be different, so don't let a "no" discourage from trying the next one.</p>
<p>Supporting a kid working to address attention issues makes these things very emotional for you as the mom. You and she know how hard she's working to compensate and be more and more careful. I'd just say to keep your most non-anxious presence and be calm about it yourself, for her development. </p>
<p>Can you report back how it went? This question comes up..every year.</p>
<p>Gees, with the title of this thread i thought it was gonna be some big calamity</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'll offer some essay advice based on this experience: Find a final proofreader who has never seen the essay before. I think we all lose the ability to spot errors after we've dithered with endless iterations.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Great idea!</p>
<p>Another idea that we used when I was practicing law was to have 2 people proofread by having one read it out loud as the other follows along silently - you catch all sorts of problems that way.</p>
<p>Another way to proofread is to do so backwards. It's relatively rare to have typos in the first several sentences, because they get reviewed, and re-reviewed, and re-re-reviewed, and so on. At my work, we have to proofread various documents very intensely, and without fail the mistakes happen later on in the sections that get less attention to detail unless we make a conscious effort to proof backwards.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Another idea that we used when I was practicing law was to have 2 people proofread by having one read it out loud as the other follows along silently - you catch all sorts of problems that way.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Ah, that brings back memories of my young associate-hood, proofing legal descriptions. It was tedium, but tedium done with a friend.</p>
<p>Plenty of students have posted on CC that they made major problems on their essays -- such as putting the name of the wrong college in their essay-- and they had no problem with substituting a different essay after calling admission and asking if they could. They didn't tell admission with the prob with the essay was; they just asked if they could substitute a new essay. The student, not the parent, should contact admission so it's clear to admission that the student is mature enough to handle their own problems, and the student, not the parent, wrote the essay.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl.. excellent advice. It is my "job" around here to proofread. I was a copy editor for a long time and as a writer in a previous life and a marketing assistant, proofing copy is a staple of the business. As such, it is a double-edged sword in that I find errors all the time. And.. in the latest IPhone Ad, the use of the word, Funnest, almost creeps me out since it is not even a word. </p>
<p>When a word is misspelled consistently, this is more bothersome to me than a transversal of letters (the graduate vs graudate singular error), but I can also tell you that there is not one school that my son has applied to that I haven't found dropped words or some other minor grammatical or spelling error in either their print material or website. And they are all top schools on CC (except Tufts -- which I simply don't understand why it's not in the top).</p>
<p>I fully understand the sense of panic, but I choose to believe what admission officers consistently say on CC and in their own presentations: they are not jerks. Nor are they personally infallible. You can certainly resend with a note of explanation, but even if you didn't I would highly doubt that of all things in a college application it would come down to such a minor thing for rejection vs acceptance.</p>
<p>I think you have received some practical advice on this thread re: to try to submit a correction or not. I have two personal stories regarding spelling errors of my own, which I hope you find amusing.</p>
<p>In an English course in college taught by a professor who also was a published author, when he handed the first set of papers back he went on and on about someone who repeatedly misspelled a word in the paper (pre spell check days.) Well it turned out to be me, and I was so grateful that he did not mention that it was me. Even though I had done very well in HS english, I must have never learned to spell this word right. (I just remembered it was existance not existence - dumb huh?)</p>
<p>When I was practicing law, I drafted either a cover letter or a mortgage (I don't remember which) that the senior associate reviewed. I spelled the client's name wrong, and he said "the least you could do is spell the client's name correctly..." He did not like my mortgage draft either. I don't think I EVER made that mistake again. Now I laugh if I get a letter where my name is spelled wrong from business associates (it is not a tough name either.)</p>
<p>I still don't find all the typos in my work even though I check things over quite a bit.</p>
<p>From post 22: No one who red the book even noticed. Not making fun, but I had to chuckle. Another case where you can not rely on spell check.</p>
<p>Good luck to OP's D.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl is absolutely right. The other thing that reading backwards does is remove the problem of your brain substituting what it wants to see for what's really there - it forces you to read single word by single word, rather than galloping through the sentence. </p>
<p>A reader who isn't already familiar with the material is a great help, too. Professionally, proofreading isn't done by editors OR copyeditors (though of course they catch what they can). It's a separate process undertaken by people who haven't seen the copy before - usually at least two of them, whose proofs are then collated.</p>
<p>You might want to remind your daughter that it's not a good idea to rely on spellcheck. After all this sentence would be fine according to the class poem:</p>
<p>Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea,
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.</p>
<p>Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight for it two say,
Weather eye and wring oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.</p>
<p>As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long,
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.</p>
<p>To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw's are knot aloud.</p>
<p>Eye have run this poem threw it
Your sure reel glad two no,
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.</p>
<p>-Sauce unknown</p>
<p>"Professionally, proofreading isn't done by editors OR copyeditors (though of course they catch what they can). It's a separate process undertaken by people who haven't seen the copy before - usually at least two of them, whose proofs are then collated."</p>
<p>At least in the newspaper biz, proofreaders went the way of hot type. There are no poofreaders in newspapers any more. Media websites also don't have proofreaders. Copyeditors do the work along with catching other types of errors. Good copyeditors are very hard to find, too, because most people don't have the aptitude for catching those kind of errors.</p>
<p>NSM, you're right, and I shouldn't have said "professionally" without specifying that I meant book publishing. CARELESS ERROR! :D</p>
<p>Good copyeditors are very hard to find, no question about that.</p>
<p>I don't think that three misspellings are going to determine her acceptance or denial.</p>
<p>True story from one of my first jobs out of school.....</p>
<p>Scene: Financial investment committee, charged with creating copy for a press release of their new "Publicly Traded Bonds" fund.</p>
<p>Wrote it, revised it, proofed it, proofed it, then someone else proofed it, and then everyone proofed it. And then each of us proofed it again. And then....guess what?....we proofed it some more.</p>
<p>It was released to press as "Pubicly Traded Bonds".</p>
<p>D's guidance counselor's advise last year was: don't accentuate the negative. Don't point it out and then offer an explanation. Rather hope that they don't find/ or overlook the negative. If you point it out, it will make it more important even if you try to expalin it away.</p>
<p>I agree with him.</p>
<p>Wow ... just wow. I'm having a difficult time answering this thread with the title you posted, calling 3 typos your "worst nightmare." As someone whose husband was in critical condition last summer and on life support for 3 weeks, maybe my perspective has been altered. Seriously, it's just not worth agonizing over. Either send a correction or let it go. Either way, save the anxiety for something really important. Your attitude towards this will set an example for your daughter.</p>
<p>And heyalb -- great story!</p>