Spelling

[Jena]

I am not a spelling freak. I misspell words on occasion, but I am fed up with finding misspelled words EVERYWHERE!

It used to be that news organizations were the epitome of proofreading. You could never find a misspelled word in a major news source and they were rare even in small papers and such! Now, no one cares.

I've seen misspelled words on websites of all the major networks. CNN, Fox, MSNBC. I've seen misspelled words in news articles, classified ads, blog posts and just about everything else. It seems that spell check has not only turned us into poor spellers, but into lazy butts who won't even run the thing, or bother to proofread for the correctly spelled, but wrong, word.

I am not bashing on forum posts. It's no big deal if words are not correct here, but when one has a gazillion dollar business who's business IS COMMUNICATION, you'd think they'd put a bit of effort into getting it right.

I just found a misspelling on a government website. They went so far as to carry that misspelling into the codes they made for the data I was looking at. One code was for "military", but they misspelled it as "milatary" so to find that data type one has to search for MILA. Really? Sheesh...this covers thousands and thousands of records. You think they would have double checked.

You know, I don't even think it's the misspelled words that get me so much as the fact that no one cares. It just shows a lack of pride in one's work, a lack of respect for whatever it is one is trying to say. People are lowering the bar, one incorrect word at a time. It is disheartening.

Words used to matter. Information was important. In this age of 24 hour "news" and instant access to everything you ever wanted to know, I guess each one just does not carry the wait (now that is an intentional pun) it did before.

[willow_girl]

but when one has a gazillion dollar business who's business IS COMMUNICATION,

Should be "whose," missy!

I agree with your general premise, however. The editor of our local daily paper (a fairly big rag with a circulation of around 50,000) misspelled a word in his column awhile back -- I was tempted to call it to his attention, then use it as a springboard to ask him for a job. LOL

Drives me nuts too!

[How Do I]

Originally Posted by willow_girl

Should be "whose," missy! Drives me nuts too!

I new it! Evry tyme I goe to start a thred like this I see my own mispellings and laugh and say ah skrew it.:happy0035:

No offenze Jenna. Wer'e all humin. Some more thin others.

[Shrek]

I chuckle when I see people use "loose" when they should lose one of the vowels to be grammatically correct in the text they are posting.

Another one I get a kick out of is when someone refers to their water heater as a "hot water heater" and I remember the one time I called it a hot water heater and my father's plumber asked me why I would want to heat hot water.

[gaucli]

Originally Posted by Shrek

I chuckle when I see people use "loose" when they should lose one of the vowels to be grammatically correct in the text they are posting.

Another one I get a kick out of is when someone refers to their water heater as a "hot water heater" and I remember the one time I called it a hot water heater and my father's plumber asked me why I would want to heat hot water.

Definitely guilty of that....from here on out..just a WATER HEATER!

[How Do I]

Originally Posted by Shrek

I chuckle when I see people use "loose" when they should lose one of the vowels to be grammatically correct in the text they are posting.

Another one I get a kick out of is when someone refers to their water heater as a "hot water heater" and I remember the one time I called it a hot water heater and my father's plumber asked me why I would want to heat hot water.

Sears has all kinds of hot water heaters for sale. Hot water heaters is a pretty popular term though.

[Bearfootfarm]

Eye kin speel, buut eye kint tipe

[AR Cattails]

I don't think, in general, that people care about the quality of work they do this day and time. I think in the "old days" a person's work was a matter of pride. Today it seems that alot of people just do what has to be done to earn that paycheck.

[willow_girl]

"A lot" is two words.

Newsrooms have been cut to the bone, and today a lot of copy is being written by freelancers who are paid around 2 cents per word. Ya get what ya pay for! (Or, if we want to be grammatically correct, "That for which you pay.") LOL

[Alice In TX/MO]

Shakespeare..... read some Shakespeare.

The English language is not concrete.

Here's an example from colonial America as well....

http://www.lcmm.org/our_fleet/perseverance.htm

[Aintlifegrand]

Of all the things that could stress me.. this aint it. As long as I am able to understand the meaning then I pay little attention to the spelling of the actual words or the grammar.. I read a lot and I see mistakes everywhere.. .. it is just not that important... I read over the mispelling becasue I am more interested in content. However, if there are so many mispellings in the work where I cannot understand the meaning.. I just won't read it.

[Ed Norman]

Originally Posted by Shrek

I chuckle when I see people use "loose" when they should lose one of the vowels to be grammatically correct in the text they are posting.

Another one I get a kick out of is when someone refers to their water heater as a "hot water heater" and I remember the one time I called it a hot water heater and my father's plumber asked me why I would want to heat hot water.

Hot water heater has always bugged me. Another is front shoulder. I shot it right in the front shoulder. Yeah? Could you point out the back shoulder to me?

My email has a spell check and once in a while it says a word is spelled wrong when I know it isn't. I check, and the spell check is indeed wrong.

[snowshoehair]

What bug's me.... is where they are putting their apostrophe's now-a-day’s. Just because the computer’s spell checker’s “suggest” it might be so….

[Oggie]

Originally Posted by willow_girl

"A lot" is two words.

Newsrooms have been cut to the bone, and today a lot of copy is being written by freelancers who are paid around 2 cents per word. Ya get what ya pay for! (Or, if we want to be grammatically correct, "That for which you pay.") LOL

That, and more and more production duties have moved into the newsroom. Positions that were pure copy editing in the past now require page building for the print edition and coding for the online version.

And the people doing that work for any particular media outlet are, most typically, far fewer than even 2 or 3 years ago.

Add to the shortage of workers the incessant need to get stories online as soon as possible, and you have the perfect recipe for more mistakes.

[newfieannie]

doesn't bother me either as long as i understand the content. i can spell pretty good. (i hate the spelling police) but i had trouble with some words when i came here first. some of the words that i have spelled that way for years. like favorite .(favourite) there was one person on ST that constantly harped on it.another was potato. i was spelling it potatoe. then i started using pot. but some people got the idea i was growing pot. so i went back to potato. i have trouble reading some of the newspapers around here though.now that i hear Willow's explanation i can understand. ~Georgia.

[Our Little Farm]

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

Shakespeare..... read some Shakespeare.

The English language is not concrete.

Here's an example from colonial America as well....

http://www.lcmm.org/our_fleet/perseverance.htm

That and what most people write here is not English but American. The spelling and even the grammar is different.

I don't like to see a mispelled word in a book that I read, but on here my posts are full of mistakes, mispellings and grammar issues. I just about have time to answer posts, not proof read mine! LOL

Life is too short to worry about some stuff.

[Our Little Farm]

Originally Posted by newfieannie

doesn't bother me either as long as i understand the content. i can spell pretty good. (i hate the spelling police) but i had trouble with some words when i came here first. some of the words that i have spelled that way for years. like favorite .(favourite) there was one person on ST that constantly harped on it.another was potato. i was spelling it potatoe. then i started using pot. but some people got the idea i was growing pot. so i went back to potato. i have trouble reading some of the newspapers around here though.now that i hear Willow's explanation i can understand. ~Georgia.

Favourite is the correct 'English' spelling of the word. Favorite is the American version.

[fantasymaker]

Wanna tell when Im on the road? The spell checker is not set to auto!

[shellmar]

I agree that it is frustrating to find misspelled words in books and articles, ect. I think that we as a people have become casual in our speech and also in our writing. We don't use capital letters when we should, I am guilty of that myself. A few years ago, I would never have used a lower case letter for the beginning of my screen name, I think I've become somewhat lazy.

I have a gripe about the word "a lot." When I was in high school, my English teacher told us that "a lot" was a piece of ground and that if you wanted to say having something numerous you would write "alot" without any spaces. This did not serve me well. I got into trouble at my first job. I typed a transcript in which the world a lot was used numerous times. The judge was not happy with all of the mistakes. Thanks a lot teacher!

[georger]

Today's kids are just as lazy it seems. And adults too, when it comes to spelling they just assume everybody does it the same way.

Sorry but when I was in school spelling counted, and one thing that annoys me is laziness in efforts to establish communications accurately.