One of the funnier typographical errors I’ve seen recently occurred in about 72 point type in the banner of a newspaper. You can see the front page of New Hampshire’s Valley “Newss” reproduced in an article on the Telegraph.co.uk site.

The big lesson here is that the goofier the error, the farther it will travel. Don’t take anything for granted– be sure to proofread your headlines and subheads!

If you enjoy word games in your spare time (self-employed writing evaluators do have spare time, don’t they?), visit Etymologic.com, where you’ll find “the toughest word game on the web.” Don’t visit the site if you’re working with a deadline, though, because it’s a wee bit addictive!

The creators of the game are not exaggerating when they say it’s tough. The first time I played, I approached it as casually as I would approach the vocabulary quiz in the Reader’s Digest. I haven’t missed a word in the RD quiz in decades, but I quickly discovered that Etymologic was in a completely different league. I missed five of the ten questions before I realized this and started to concentrate. I salvaged my dignity by missing only one out of ten on the second try, but it took a bit of thought.

Word games are an excellent way to sharpen your vocabulary skills– just beware of letting them infringe on your writing, editing, evaluation, and marketing time. Enjoy!