What’s wrong with this picture?

(Or, Why we shouldn’t make assumptions.)

Take a look at the above picture and see if you can spot what’s wrong with it. If you said, “the apostrophe”, you’d probably be right.

Probably.

At first glance this appears to be a classic case of the greengrocer’s apostrophe rearing its ugly head once again, and that the sign should read simply ‘Tattoos’. I mean, what else could it be? Well, maybe the shop is owned by someone named Tattoo, in which case the possessive apostrophe (as in “Audrey’s books” or “Gary’s bargain prices”) is perfectly fine! It’s a bit unlikely that someone named Tattoo opened a tattoo shop which they then named after themself, but you never know.

(Side note: that reminds me of the scene in The Office (US) where Dwight, put on the spot about his fake visit to a fake dentist, tells his boss Michael that the dentist’s name is Crentist, and that’s probably the reason that Crentist became a dentist.)

The point is that as a proofreader and copyeditor I never make assumptions about a text that I’m working on – I have to consider lots of different things, including the context and the author’s intent. Does a character really say (like many people) “Could of” rather than “Could’ve”, or is it a typo in the document? When a character thinks back on something they said earlier but they use phrasing that doesn’t match the original dialogue, is it writer error or is the character misremembering? It can be tricky sometimes to go against natural instincts to correct something that seems obviously wrong, so I always make a point of slowing down for a second and considering the other options.

The last thing any writer wants is a proofreader or editor riding roughshod over their hard work, undoing careful characterisation through heavy-handedness. You don’t have to worry about that with me – if I’m at all unsure of the intent I mark it as a query to be looked at rather than changing things to abide by the ‘rules’ of spelling or grammar. Your work is in safe hands, so get in touch today to see how I can help make your writing shine!