Last night my friend Lee was over and we got to talking about my blog when she mentioned that I spelled 'judgment' wrong. Her husband was mortified that she mentioned it but I was on cloud nine because, of course, it meant she actually read my stories!
After the initial glow wore off, I got a little upset with myself. I fancy myself a good speller generally, but everybody has a word or two that trips them up. Or seven, in my case. Spell check is available to everyone with just the touch of a key. Spelling bloopers are inexcusable. Inexcusible? I'd better check...
I'm a bit obsessive so when I went back to correct my initial error, I had to check all of my posts. In addition to the aforementioned judgment, I'd also misspelled raucous, tutorial, accommodate and reticence. I totally omitted the 'w' in which in one place and made massive compound words where, according to the electronic genius housed within my computer, there were none. Gameplan, carseats, WalMart, cablebox, houseguest, stairtreads all are two words. They don't even have hyphens.
There were also a couple of words where I'd added an extra letter. Necesssary, Beginnnings, hmmmmm... How many 'm's are in 'hmmmm?'
There were a few questionable corrections. I think 'hottie' is right and who really knows how to spell 'doozy?' I stick by my guns on those.
Spell check wasn't 100% accurate either. Everyone knows what 'tv' means. 'Unbeknownst' may be antiquated, but it remains an entry in dictionary.com and I'm fairly certain my husband spells his nickname 'Jer.' My favorite spell check error was 'colonoscopy.' The suggested spelling was 'cloudscape.' Pretty much everybody reading would prefer cloudscape to colonoscopy! Spell check also has a big problem with possessives. 'The patient's' gets changed to 'the patients' and it picks that type of construction as wrong every time.
I'll admit I've been arrogant in not checking my stories more thoroughly. But spell check isn't perfect, either. Spell check: 16 Chris: 7.
And, Lee, spell check didn't pick up 'judgement' as being misspelled either. Guess you are gonna have to read all my future blogs for me -- just to be sure.
1 comment:
Judgement is actually now considered an acceptable variant (listed in Miriam-Webster)and even the OED says "also judgement". Remember, language is a living thing and what used to be is not always still the case. Another big error is relying on spellcheck, instead of proofreading, because you obviously meant you were going to "stick" to your guns, not "sick" to them. :) Ain't life grand! <3
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