Editing is a daily exercise for me. It’s not always on a manuscript; it’s just life. I edit that business sign I see as I’m driving down the highway, that ambiguous news headline as I’m browsing the web, and this sign in the grocery store as I pick out the best apples:
They aren’t the only ones who struggle with this common mistake. When we moved to a new city recently, my husband and I began looking for a new home church. On one visit, I’ll admit, I got distracted during worship. The worship leader pounded away energetically on the piano, but I couldn’t help but trip up over the typos in the lyrics on the screen. My favorite was “your’re.” Michael leaned over and whispered, “That’s what you write when you don’t know which one is correct!”
‘Your’ is possessive. Your horse is beautiful. (The horse belongs to you).
‘You’re’ is a contraction for ‘you are.’ You’re looking splendid these days. (You are looking splendid. Say the contraction out loud.)
It’s that simple.
But sometimes it’s the simple things our brain skips over.