'Error's in children's drawing and writing

‘Errors’ are common in children’s drawing and writing. Discourses of inadequacy and shortcoming focus on what youngsters cannot do and where they ‘get it wrong’. This deficit view distracts attention from the sophistication of what they do inscribe. Viewed through the theoretical lens of ‘semiotic work’, the ‘errors’ children make becomes surprising. If text making entails principled engagement in the shaping of meaning, there is also ‘work’ in ‘errors’. Through examining the layout and spelling of an email exchange, the colouring of a drawing ‘copied’ from a picture dictionary extract and the arrows in a science worksheet, the analysis asks three questions: What count as errors? How are errors handled? How are errors evaluated?