It Checks The Spelling On Its Blog!
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It’s much easier for me to take someone’s advice on technical matters seriously if he or she demonstrates that he or she at least understands the rudiments of the modern convenience known as the spell checker. Or spell-checker. Or spellchecker. Or spelling-checker. I don’t care what you feel like calling it — just use it!
If you tell me that you know how to build a house but you end the project by painting the Tyvek and calling it a done deal, I’m going to hold your bold claims suspect.
This isn’t meant to pick on anyone; it’s meant to pick on everyone! Hey, nobody’s perfect, but if we’re going to show that we know the first thing about technology, let’s at least begin with the basics.
Teh editur wud aprecate ur compliaince ib thiss mater! Thhank u!
[tags]english, spellcheck, spellchecker, spell check, spelling checker, spelling-checker, spell-check[/tags]
7 Comments
Ms. Wahala
July 9th, 2007
at 9:09pm
LOL… spell checking has definitely spoiled me. My problem is that I type fast, but inaccurately. And though I proofread, I sometmes miss the same things spell check does, things like form instead of from…
Robert Glen Fogarty
July 9th, 2007
at 9:59pm
Oh, I think honest mistakes like that are understandable, Ms. Wahala! It’s when someone’s obviously not taken the care to make even a simple attempt at ensuring a document’s not riddled with little red underlines before it’s put out for public consumption that makes me wonder how much that person could possibly know about his or her subject. Especially if it’s a “tech expert” who can’t be bothered to press a few buttons!
It’s not a matter of that person being a good or bad writer — I can overlook grammar blunders and misplaced punctuation (well, I might be a little fanatical about errant apostrophes, but that’s my own issue and something I’ll rant about another time!). In this day and age, you don’t even need to own a dictionary to make sure you’re on the right track!
Cliffystones
July 13th, 2007
at 7:49am
What is worse than not using spell checker is this. People who do not proof- read before they send e-mails or (worse) printed material.
I’m not talking about my 10-year-old son’s book report either. I’m talking about middle managers and executives who write as if they only have working knowledge of the English language at a 10-year-old level!
Cliffystones
anonymous
July 13th, 2007
at 11:17am
Spel chekc is for loesers. Hahahahahahzhahsha!!!1!!one!
Robert Glen Fogarty
July 13th, 2007
at 8:05pm
Cliffystones: While I agree that people should proofread anything they plan on sharing with other people, I think checking spelling with tools easily available to anyone who professes to know how to use computers is the very least they could do!
anonymous: Thanks for helping to prove my point!
Cliffystones
July 14th, 2007
at 7:23am
Robert,
I wholeheartedly agree!
But when is the last time you had to decipher a “Chinglish” users manual. It would be nice if the folks manufacturing goods overseas would cough up a little of the money they save using slave labor, and have someone re-write those things!
CS
Robert Glen Fogarty
July 15th, 2007
at 12:47pm
Hey, I’m sure that, if I had to try and write instructions in another language, I’d butcher them as well!
Sure, the manufacturers could hire competent translators to edit that stuff — but would it be as funny?
I’m always willing to give people for whom English is a second (or third, or fourth, etc.) language a break, though. My beef is really with native English speakers who should know better and don’t.