The cumulative effect of errors (1)

There is a legal concept called the cumulative effect of errors. One description of this concept is: “In some cases, the cumulation of minor errors may amount to error requiring [a decision by a judge], even if individual errors, alone, would not.” (Via LexisNexis.)

Or informally: Small errors add up.

You have probably noticed an analogous effect in your reading. If an author keeps making errors, eventually you will conclude that he is careless and possibly unreliable – even if none of his errors is a serious error.

Example of the cumulative effect of errors

Here’s an example from a blogger, a former Chicago police officer. He is criticizing the Transportation Security Administration (boldface in original):

“The TSA was created as a new ways to waste billions on government contractor fraud as thousands of hard corps unemployable people were given jobs and the power to abuse and steal the belongings of passengers.

“The cargo side of airline security is not seen by passengers and accordingly is largely ignored. The TSA administration has equated the public perception of their job performance by how much aggravation passengers can be put through.

“To date the TSA or their predecessors have not stopped a single terrorist incident.”

Analysis

Here is the passage again, with my comments interspersed, in brackets:

The TSA was created as a new ways

[Should be way]

to waste billions on government contractor fraud as thousands of hard corps unemployable

[Should be hard-core unemployable]

people were given jobs and the power to abuse and steal the belongings of passengers.

[Does he mean abuse passengers and steal the belongings of passengers, or abuse the belongings of passengers and steal the belongings of passengers?]


The cargo side of airline security is not seen by passengers and accordingly is largely ignored.

[Ignored by passengers or ignored by the TSA?]

The TSA administration

[Redundant; the A in TSA stands for administration]

has equated the public perception of their

[Should be its; in American English, an organization is singular, not plural]

job performance by

[Should be with or and, not by]

how much aggravation

[Should be irritation or a synonym, not aggravation]

passengers can be put through.


To date the TSA or their

[Should be its]

predecessors have not stopped a single terrorist incident.

That’s a total of nine errors in 87 words – on average, one error in every ten words. This is a high rate of error, even by the lax standards of personal blogs.

The Takeaway: As you edit, keep in mind the cumulative effect of errors. The more errors you make, the worse you look – even if none of your errors reduces clarity. Eventually your reader stops reading, at which point the effective clarity of your text drops to zero.

See disclaimer.