Muphry’s law

Posted on July 7 2017

I was introduced to Muphry's Law yesterday, which the Urban Dictionary defines as follows:

Muphry's Law is the editorial application of the better-known Murphy's Law. Muphry's Law dictates that if you write anything criticising another person's editing or proofreading, you will inevitably make a mistake of your own. Note that by definition, pointing out an example of Muphry's Law makes you in turn subject to it.

This may have happened because the editor who introduced me to the idea (who I shall leave with his integrity intact) was commenting on my proclivity for typos. Or he may have just felt the name was apposite.

Either way, the  time has come to do something about those errors. It occurs to me that there are some regular readers out there - known to me because of commenting here regularly over time or because I just know them in person  - who might be willing to help out as sub-editors to address this issue. I am not looking for volunteers I do not know (sorry: but I can't risk that). I am looking for people with a track record who would be willing to correct typos when they see them. They would not have to proof-read for that reason. They'd just make the odd correction, or twnety (sic) three, as and when.

The people qualified for the job know who they are. Any volunteers please? If it helps get the message out I'd appreciate the support.

Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:

You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.

And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:

16

16 Responses

  1. Leigh Bowden says:
    July 7 2017 at 7:06 am

    Murphy’s law. What can go wrong will.
    O’Tooles law. Murphy was an optomist.

  2. David Williams says:
    July 7 2017 at 8:21 am

    The typo version is called Murphy’s low.

  3. David Kiernan says:
    July 7 2017 at 9:19 am

    I quite enjoy your typos. They seldom affect the sense of your writing and give an air of immediacy and frenetic activity. Blogs should be rough and ready, not polished works of art/artifice. I like to engage with your ideas, not your prose.

    • Richard Murphy says:
      July 7 2017 at 9:48 am

      That’s my view too: they are the outburst of frenetic energy that you suggest

      The trouble is that some are getting lives all of their own and then typos matter

    • Norman Willcox says:
      July 7 2017 at 11:07 am

      I agree. Richard’s output is phenominal; it obviously requires very fast typing; typos should be ignored and forgiven.

    • Matt says:
      July 7 2017 at 11:30 am

      I agree,

      the incidence of typos in a given piece of writing reveal a hint of emotional engagement that makes it more expressive,

      maybe typos are subliminal emojis?

  4. Jen says:
    July 7 2017 at 12:07 pm

    I love the typos and I love Matt’s theory of subliminal emojis

  5. Carol Wilcox says:
    July 7 2017 at 1:46 pm

    Dear Richard

    I could volunteer to be a proof reader, which is something I quite enjoy, because I’m constantly getting the urge to correct grammatical errors and misspellings. But typos are not these and I’m inclined to agree with other commenters here that your typos are part of the delight of your blog and it would be a shame to destroy a very neat new term: Muphry’s Law.

  6. murray marr says:
    July 8 2017 at 7:12 am

    (who I shall leave with his integrity intact)

    I’m not eligible – far too slow. But the person who gets the job must be able to find salvation for ‘whom’. Pedants depend on things like that.

  7. Lucy F-G says:
    July 8 2017 at 11:40 am

    I shared a piece from this blog that was inspired by a dog (can’t remember quite how the dog came into it) and got the comment “Shame the dog didn’t write the first three lines!” As a regular reader who’s good at proofreading, I would be happy to help people to focus on the content rather than any eccentricities of the form. I don’t know if I count as someone you know, Richard. You met me when you came to King’s Lynn Meeting to give us a talk. I would certainly guarantee only to alter utterly obvious typos and not anything else.