Two lovely black eyes!
Oh, what a surprise!
Only for telling a man he was wrong – two lovely black eyes!
I feel an affinity for the man who wrote this song over 130 years ago, and performed it in East End Music Halls for many years afterwards. For one thing, Charles Coborn took his stage name from Coborn Road, in Bow, which was where my local pub was before we moved away.
But more relevant to this blog is the response he gets from telling someone they are wrong. People don’t like it.
In the song, the chap concerned gets into political arguments with the wrong people. I can imagine the he would have some sympathy with those of us who put a lot of thought and effort into correcting people, and the lack of gratitude we get for our trouble.
Proof-reading is a long way from wading into political argument. Proof-readers are (usually) only pointing out mistakes we’ve been asked to look for.
Otherwise, which of us dares to point out mistakes? It is seen as rude, or arrogant, or intrusive. People can actually get quite annoyed if you point out a mistake. And yet what we are doing is giving someone some useful information. Even if we weren’t asked for our advice, we are actually helping them do something better.
So when I have my mistakes pointed out, I try to remind myself of a mini-parable, about receiving criticism, from the spiritual writer Anthony de Mello.
A monkey on a tree hurled a coconut at the head of a Sufi.
The man picked it up, drank the milk, ate the flesh, and made a bowl from the shell.
“Thank you for your criticism of me.”
Accuracy Works 