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ugh typo!
Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 7:29 pm
by Anonymous User
Despite the fact that I proofread my cover letter a dozen times, and had a member of my career center proofread it twice, there is a very small typo in my cover letter. The word "in" is missing from a sentence "to be used [my school's] classes." Obviously there should be an 'in' there. I've already gotten one interview from a judge who received a cover letter with a typo, but I am concerned this could hurt my chances with others.
Thoughts?
Nothing snarky please. Yeah, I know I should've seen the typo. It was a stupid mistake.

But I obviously cannot do anything about it now.
Re: ugh typo!
Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 7:44 pm
by bk1
So you're saying there's nothing you can do, which is correct, and you're asking for thoughts? The thoughts are hope they don't notice or hope they don't care. Don't worry about things over which you have no control at this point.
Re: ugh typo!
Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 8:52 am
by Anonymous User
I've learned the hard way about typos many times. Feel your pain.
I hope this comforts you: I don't think anyone would notice unless they were intentionally looking for typos. Just edit future letters and make sure to proofread better next time. One thing I do, which you can try, is read the letter backwards. You won't be able to spot grammatical typos, but you almost always catch spelling mistakes.
There are also common typos that don't get caught on MS Word, such as "statue" instead of "statute".
Re: ugh typo!
Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 9:40 am
by ZVBXRPL
Re: ugh typo!
Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 10:26 am
by Anonymous User
Some clerks/judges will notice, others will not. For those who notice, it will kill you in some chambers, hurt you in others, and probably make no difference in a few. In any event, there's nothing you can do about it now.
Re: ugh typo!
Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 8:56 pm
by MarkRenton
I went back to borrow from some language from an old clerking cover letters whereupon I discovered that I had a very very similar typo as you. I received several interviews with this cover letter. It looks like no one read my cover letters very hard, which I imagine most of us suspected. So I wouldn't worry too much.
Re: ugh typo!
Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 3:56 pm
by Anonymous User
I had the same type of typo in a cover letter. I wrote a very brief letter explaining that I submitted a cover letter with a typo and enclosed a corrected version of the cover letter, sans typo. I overnighted the letter. I got an interview with that (AIII) judge, but did not get the clerkship.
At the risk of highlighting your error, you acknowledge the mistake and show that you are not afraid to point out that you are wrong. I imagine this almost never works. But you probably won't get this particular clerkship anyway, so, IMO, there is really no downside (or very, very little downside) in trying to improve your chances, even if it has the risk of reducing your chances.