What I Learned from a Blooper

Terry,

I wrote a whole series about my stroke and recovery. The link in the post to “stroke” leads to the first installment in the series, and the others are linked from there.

Thank you, Wilson. The two words are pronounced exactly the same, so it was an easy mistake to make. However, I should have known that gait meant walk so it makes sense that a belt to help you walk would be a gait belt and not a gate belt. I had a real “duh” moment when my mother pointed it out. It seemed so obvious I wondered how I had missed it.

Robert,

I’m glad my mother was there to catch the error, too. She’s been gone several years now, and I miss her.

Situations like this are one reason I always encourage my clients to have other people read their work. As an editor, I might not know that it’s really gait belt instead of gate belt, but someone with medical experience (my mother was a nurse) would catch the mistake. One of my clients who writes historical fiction that is true to history has readers who are historians (to check the history facts), genealogists (to help with the genealogy as he writes about real people), and people who live in the area where his books are set (to catch errors in geography, spelling of places, etc.). There’s no way I as an editor (or any one person) would know all of these things.

Cath,

It was certainly an easy mistake to make, but after my mother pointed it out, it seemed obvious that a belt to help with walking would be named gait and not gate. But it wasn’t obvious to me until she mentioned it.

Peter,

I’m sure we’ve all had many similar experiences of confusing words. But they usually don’t wind up in print. Fortunately mine was caught before the book was published, but it could have easily slipped through.

C,

I guess we have words that we learned wrong as a child and carry that in adulthood. But I didn’t even encounter this word until I was middle-aged.

Thank you, Scott.

Jonathan,

Refer your uncle to my series on stroke beginning with Part 1 linked in the post above.

I have what the doctors call “residual deficits” but I have made an amazing recovery.

Sriraj,

I’m certainly glad my mother caught the mistake. However, probably most readers wouldn’t have known the difference, if the book had been published that way.

You’re not alone in not knowing the word. Probably most people who haven’t been a patient or medical professional would not know the correct name.

online (if you wrote YourName@Keywords, I could address you as a real person, and you would still get your keyword link),

I’m sorry to hear about your aunt’s difficulty. I was very blessed to make the recovery I have, though I still have some “deficits” as the doctors call them.

Bluestocking,

I’m eager to read about your weekend. I’m behind in blog reading—this whole week and weekend have been hectic.

Karen,

Glad I gave you a smile. We need to have a good chuckle from time to time.

Fred,

I got a smile from your comment: “funny looks just don’t seem to be enough of a clue for me.” We tend not to realize something is wrong when we are convinced what we are saying is exactly right.

U (if you wrote YourName@YourKeywords, I could address you as a real person, and you would still get your keyword link),

We’ll probably learn less than half of all the possible words in a lifetime.

John C,

Like the old adage says, “If you are making mistakes, you’re not doing anything.”

Dawn,

Yes, it is definitely a reminder to follow-up on our curiosity.

Knee (if you wrote Your Name @ Knee Replacement Surgery, I could address you as a real person instead of a medical procedure, and you would still get your keyword link),

English is a complex language—words that sound alike and are spelled the same having different meanings.

Dr. Clark,

Thanks for your encouragement.

I’m not sure whether you’re saying you’ve had a stroke, been through rehabilitation for some other condition, thought a “gait” belt was a “gate” belt, or made a similar blooper with other words. If you’ve had a stroke or other condition requiring rehabilitation, I hope you’re doing well now.

manu,

I don’t think the gait belt in and of itself does anything to make a condition better. It is simply a device to allow the therapist to support the patient during rehabilitation exercises. It was probably the rehab that helped; the gait belt facilitated that.