Little Spelling Bastards

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

garamet said:

Lindley said:
^Everyone makes typos.

Recently, I had a guy do a complete proofread on everything written so far for my EV Firefly project. (It's quite a bit, really.)

9/10 times, I had spelled "Business" as "buisness." Very little else was wrong, but that was all over the place. Wow.

Here's another interesting thought: I get paid to proof other people's stuff, and I'm good, but I miss errors in my own stuff.

I'm betting that happens to a lot of folks.

Same here. I get paid to teach English composition to young college kids, and I have to read dozens of papers where I have to catch and correct their errors. Yet, when I proof my own work, sometimes things slip through. To make matters worse, I used to be a journalist.

 

[David Mack]

^ I think the root of that phenomenon is over-familiarity with one's own work when the time comes to proofread. When reading someone else's work, it's harder to anticipate the writer's intended phrasing, so one has to read what is actually on the page.

When we read our own work, however, we often recall what we meant to say; consequently, even if we have missed a word or misspelled a word, we unconsciously fill it in for ourselves, thereby blinding ourselves to what we in fact have written.

 

[Trent Roman]

garamet said:
I'm on a personal mission to teach the English-speaking world - or at least my clients - that there's no "a" in "definitely."

Yeach. I must confess, I've made that mistake often.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[KRAD]

On solemn occasions such as this, I feel the need to quote the infamous spellchecker poem:

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

 

[Lonemagpie]

That should be in every textbook!

 

[BrotherBenny]

KRAD said:
On solemn occasions such as this, I feel the need to quote the infamous spellchecker poem:

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

That's hilarious. I'm gonna keep that and print out a copy. Where did you get it from?

 

[KRAD]

It's been making the rounds of the internet. Do a Google search on "spellchecker poem" and you'll find it.

 

[HIj'Qa]

just came across physicians're in A Burning House. page 77

 

[Smiley]

Isn't that a valid contraction?

 

[KRAD]

HIj'Qa said:
just came across physicians're in A Burning House. page 77

Uhm, that's a contraction of "physicians are" in spoken dialogue. I'm unclear as to what the problem was, or what that has to do with the topic at hand. (Not that I'm defensive or anything , but when I'm accused of bad spelling or bad grammar when I've done no such thing, it gets my back up.....)

 

[trampledamage]

It's kinda funny looking, but not incorrect.

 

[Scott Pearson]

KRAD said:

HIj'Qa said:
just came across physicians're in A Burning House. page 77

Uhm, that's a contraction of "physicians are" in spoken dialogue. I'm unclear as to what the problem was, or what that has to do with the topic at hand. (Not that I'm defensive or anything , but when I'm accused of bad spelling or bad grammar when I've done no such thing, it gets my back up.....)

The question is whether the musical note "re" belonged to just one physician or more than one; that would determine whether the possessive apostrophe belonged before or after the "s." As far as the missing space between "physicians'" and "re" that may have been a simple kerning oversight in layout.

 

[trampledamage]

Nice bit of thinking, Scott. Kudos!

 

[T'Bonz]

TG Theodore said:
Yes, I know ... in this age of spellcheckers and so forth, there's no excuse for typos and improper spelling.

Still, I prefer to rely on my own brain (dangerous, I know) and I still have words I don't spell correctly after all these years.

Maintainence/Maintenance

Calvary/Cavalry

Environment/Enviornment

And a few others.

Any other spelling "blocks" that you still have? (Spelling, not improper usage. That's another thread altogether.)

--Ted

Indeedi-do.

But I use dictionary.com. It is my best friend for spelling.

Usually I'm a top-notch speller.

When sober, that is.

 

[TGTheodore]

KRAD said:

HIj'Qa said:
just came across physicians're in A Burning House. page 77

Uhm, that's a contraction of "physicians are" in spoken dialogue.

Generally I only use " 're" with words of two syllables or less. Anything longer and "are" just scans better for me.

--Ted

 

[KRAD]

^ Bully for you. Still wanna know why it was brought up in this thread.

 

[HIj'Qa]

Came up red in my Word Autocorrect

 

[KRAD]

Okay, but so does a lot of dialogue.

 

[TGTheodore]

KRAD said:
^ Bully for you. Still wanna know why it was brought up in this thread.

Me, too. Has nothing to do with spelling.

Now, if it were a polysyllabic verbal contractions thread ...

--Ted

 

[William Leisner]

KRAD said:
^ Bully for you. Still wanna know why it was brought up in this thread.

Because it's the internet; relevance to the topic at hand has never been a prerequisite for commentary.