The Urge to SpellCheck Everywhere
My daughter bought me one of those Page-A-Day calendars that has goof-ups and idiocies spoken and written from around the world, mostly things people have posted on signs or spoken on television and radio. A lot of them are totally hilarious (the black angus burgers that left out the pretty critical "g" in the angus or the church group bulletins that word things wrong, with innuendos springing up all over the place.
But I love the ones that just SCREAM for a SpellCheck. You see, I'm one of those people who have this incredible urge to proof spelling. I just HAVE to tell a store when their sign is spelled wrong. I've been known to correct bathroom wall spelling. It's a sickness...
and I think that sickness comes with the territory of being a writer. So the one for Tuesday, July 29th had me cracking up and alternately stressing about whether anyone fixed this sign: EXCELLANCE IN SECONDARY EDUCATION (an actual banner in Raleigh, North Carolina, in a room where an educational task force met to come up with ways to, get this...
Improve the state's SAT scores).
Considering I live in the state that has something like the 47th worst or 48th worst SAT scores in the nation, I see a lot of those kind of signs myself. I have to fight the urge to march on into the building and tell them to start with THEIR spelling and then worry about the kids' spelling. You know the whole, set a good example thing?
But I digress :-).
Not that I personally never misspell something (the more I work on a computer that fixes things as I type, the more my spelling begins to fall by the wayside...sigh), but I do have this persnickety thing about making sure the world around me is spelled correctly, as best as it can be. If there's a typo in one of my books after I go through every proof with a fine-tooth comb, it makes me TOTALLY INSANE (so if you buy BOARDROOM BRIDE AND GROOM, my current release, and find a typo, don't let me know. Honest to God, it'll make me nuts forever). My text messages are rarely written in that shorthand of texting. It drives my daughter nuts. I know I can do the PLS for please, but it really only takes a few extra keystrokes to spell the word out, for Pete's sake, and the whole world is just a smarter place for "please," don't you think?
Okay, maybe I really am anal ;-) Maybe I need more B vitamins or something, LOL.
Someone tell me I'm not the only one who is nuts about this kind of thing!
Shirley
Ah, no. You're not the only
Ah, no. You're not the only one. I too have a thing with spelling and it drives me up the wall. It's okay, I think there's a support group!
J.K. Coi
Immortals To Die For
www.jkcoi.com
Glad to hear...
There's a support group! I definitely need one of those! :-)
Shirley
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Available Now: BOARDROOM BRIDE AND GROOM, Harlequin Romance
A little magic brought them together once...is it enough to do it a second time?
Still in stores: REALLY SOMETHING, Zebra Books
spelling
Nope you are definitely NOT the only one who hates misspelled words. I think my obsession is from the fact that I taught for 35 years. I may have taught geography and history but misspelled words were still corrected. My biggest problem with misspelled words on a computer is first sometimes the word is not marked which means I don't always catch but mainly because I still have trouble with hitting the right keys when I type.
Me too!
Sometimes it's simply that my mind is moving way faster than my hands. One of these days I know my mind is going to slow down, but I figure the fingers will get slow, too, and I won't notice the slowness of my brain, LOL.
Shirley
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Available Now: BOARDROOM BRIDE AND GROOM, Harlequin Romance
A little magic brought them together once...or was it all an illusion?
Still in stores: REALLY SOMETHING
www.shirleyjump.com
We've all done it. I know
We've all done it. I know I've posted things where I've gone back later and realized I totally misspelled something. Right now, my laptop has no "e" key. The button fell off, and it's just this gaping hole on my keyboard. I can get an "e" out of it, but I have to press really hard and sometimes it doesn't work. So if you see me writing things and notice a lack of "e's", that's why! But I attended an RWA workshop at the conference this week, given by a very well-known author who passed out handouts to a standing-room only audience, and the handout was filled with spelling errors! It was so surprising that it was actually kind of humorous. But I don't think anyone in that room would have dared to point those errors out to her, LOL!
That would make me crazy!
Both the handouts and the "e" key. My AlphaSmart has lost keys (it's the way the keys are held on, the springs go on me from time to time). I have been through a whole LOT of those spring things on my Alphie to keep my keys in line because Lord knows it's going to make me nuts to have a missing key :-)
That said, I've handed out more than my share of handouts with a typo or two in it. I hate the "form/from" typo. The computer never catches those and I invariably catch it WHEN I'm presenting. Ugh.
Shirley
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Available Now: BOARDROOM BRIDE AND GROOM, Harlequin Romance
A little magic brought them together once...or was it all an illusion?
Still in stores: REALLY SOMETHING
www.shirleyjump.com
My kids tell me I am anal
My kids tell me I am anal about spelling. I keep telling them it doesn't take any longer to spell something right as it does to spell it wrong.
You're absolutely right...
And it doesn't hurt them to think about the spelling first, though my kids will tell me that I'm making their heads hurt, LOL.
Shirley
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Available Now: BOARDROOM BRIDE AND GROOM, Harlequin Romance
A little magic brought them together once...or was it all an illusion?
Still in stores: REALLY SOMETHING
www.shirleyjump.com
Definitely not alone...
There are certain words that give me a bit of trouble, but I do notice misspelled words. Especially articles, books, etc- if I write something and later find a typo I cringe - it's horrible. This post made me think of this one -
http://goodbadandunread.com/2008/07/10/geekazoid/
"Real good" bothers me a lot. "That's real good." Blech.
If I text [which is rare because it's not part of my plan] - but I write out words and use punctuation. Actually, emailing is where I'm not as careful, depending on who it's going to. That or chatting (same rules apply).
:P The problem is also, however, that I generally don't bother to edit/spell check comments or things I post on blogs. And just go and cringe later if I see a mistake. Another "ack" I see on blogs a lot is "congrads" for "congratulations" - oh typing that even just now was so grating. *cringe*
Just read that blog and was SO glad...
That I wasn't the author they bashed at the end as the one to pick up if you wanted to read tons of grammar mistakes. Whew!
I agree on the congrads vs congratulations. It's not like those extra keys took a whole lot of extra effort. Hey, at least least they're finger exercise, right?
But in people's defense, there is no spellcheck on blogs, so if you are a bad speller, it can be hard to know if you got it right. I figure if people got it wrong on a blog or a place that has no spellcheck, well, that's just understandable.
Plus in a world filled with computers, it gets easier to mess up spelling because you get so used to the comptuer getting it right for you.
One thing that drives me nuts is schools now giving older kids full credit for getting the word "sound" right, though not spelled right. They guess, and that's good enough. Drives me crazy. Like the schools have given up on full spelling? I'm not sure what the thinking is behind letting kids get full credit on guessing the spelling instead of getting the actual world spelled right.
Okay, done ranting :-)
Shirley
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Available Now: BOARDROOM BRIDE AND GROOM, Harlequin Romance
A little magic brought them together once...or was it all an illusion?
Still in stores: REALLY SOMETHING
www.shirleyjump.com
Oh ack
Hm - I'm going to have to re-read the post. [I don't think it mentioned anyone by name...]
I think my issue with certain "congraDs" is ... all over the blog, other comments, etc, it says "congraTs" or "congratulations" - yet others insist on using "d."
I... can't believe the school thing. How terrible.
It's in the comments...at the end :-)
Shirley
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Available Now: BOARDROOM BRIDE AND GROOM, Harlequin Romance
A little magic brought them together once...or was it all an illusion?
Still in stores: REALLY SOMETHING
www.shirleyjump.com
Misspellings
No, Shirley. You are definitely not alone in this. I cringe when I see misspellings on signposts or teacher's bulletin boards or the principal's newsletter! Ugh!
LindaC
Oh, me too! Of all people...
Who should be getting it right...they're the ones! Set a good example and the rest will follow. You have to wonder why you're paying these people to teach your kids when they can't even spell.
Shirley
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Available Now: BOARDROOM BRIDE AND GROOM, Harlequin Romance
A little magic brought them together once...or was it all an illusion?
Still in stores: REALLY SOMETHING
www.shirleyjump.com
This would probably make me
This would probably make me more crazy if I didn't commit so many faux pas myself, so I have learned to be more relaxed about it... I raise an eyebrow at incorrectly worded signs, but I figure, for the store or whatever, probably most of the people looking at the sign don't notice or don't care. I think I'm forgiving on that angle because I don't want anyone studying me that closely, LOL. There before the grace of God and all of that...
I'm a reprobate -- I love abbreviations and acronyms, probably because I've lived an online life for so long and live with a computer guy. ;) It's just another language to me, I suppose, and I have the most basic cell phone in the world, so I'm thankful to use acronyms a lot in texting or I would never get the message out...
My peeve is emails all in lower case (or upper -- I really dislike the industry habit of capping titles, which is why we italicize them here) and the completely inappropriate email nicknames -- like getting email from a student called "SucksBlood@aol.com" or whatnot -- I would tell them to get a proper email for professional communication.
I try to catch misspellings, etc but I'm not always good at it, so I guess I tend to be forgiving, and I do love spell check. I have learned to re-read my first paragraphs of any ms I sent to my editor, because almost like clockwork, no matter how many times I've read through, I will find a mistake in the first para. It's just weird...
Sam
I once sent out...
a dozen letters that said "I a freelance writer..." before I caught my mistake. Now I know to proofread on the computer and in a hard copy before I mail anything :-)
I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal about how many fresh-out-of-college kids are ruining their job chances by texting too informaling or writing informal e-mails back to prospective employers, things like, "Txs 4 the Iview! :-)!" That stuff is an auto-no for employers looking for people who can handle themselves in a professional environment.
Shirley
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Available Now: BOARDROOM BRIDE AND GROOM, Harlequin Romance
A little magic brought them together once...or was it all an illusion?
Still in stores: REALLY SOMETHING
www.shirleyjump.com
You're not alone!
Shirley, that sort of thing drives me bonkers, and I'm the rude person in the audience trying not to snicker at typos that I find in the program... :(
LOL, Fedora...
I find more typos in the programs put together by our local newspaper people than by anyone else. Sigh. It's realy sad, actually.
Shirley
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Available Now: BOARDROOM BRIDE AND GROOM, Harlequin Romance
A little magic brought them together once...or was it all an illusion?
Still in stores: REALLY SOMETHING
www.shirleyjump.com