Why You Should Not Rely on Spell Check to Catch Spelling Mistakes
The Importance of Spelling and Meaning in Your Writing
Dear Spat,
I had a really food crime at the picnic in the bark. It was nice to gel together with old fiends and enjoy so much slaughter. We should so that more often. The flied chicken was malicious. Thank you for flinging it.
Why don't we jet together one of these fights and have a dew beets or something? We could go to that net part fear my mouse. The destruction of the marking area is finished and it is open to the pubic.
Your fiend,
Brain
What on earth did that mean? There was a food crime? Who was slaughtered and why? Fiends were flinging chicken? What are dew beets? Are mice really that scary? What was that about destruction? Who would want a place to be open to the pubic? If "Brain" had done a little bit of proofreading before sending this letter to "Spat", he might have changed it to this:
Dear Pat,
I had a really good time at the picnic in the park. It was nice to get together with old friends and enjoy so much laughter. We should do that more often. The fried chicken was delicious. Thank you for bringing it.
Why don't we get together one of these nights and have a few beers or something? We could go to that new park near my house. The construction of the parking area is finished and it is open to the public.
Your friend,
Brian
Correct spelling is just as important as ever, but correct meaning cannot be assumed when spell check does all the work. In fact, it can turn a nice letter into a frightening one. Things might have worked out for Pat and Brian in the long run, but imagine what would happen if someone wrote a letter with so many typos to a boss. A request for some time off to go on vacation could turn into a rambling threat to set his house on fire. I was just notified that the spelling and grammar check of this article is complete.
Published by Alicia Suenaga
So far, my life is a string of Honorable Mentions. View profile
- Why You Can't Rely on Spell Check Software
- Use Your Search Engine as a Spell Check
- Yours Sincerely: Formal Letter Writing Tips
- Attention Beginning Bloggers: Before You Blog, Read This!
- Spell Check Addiction: Symptoms and Cure
- Why You Should Never Trust Spell Check
- Writing Tips: Don't Rely on Spell Check, or Spelling Rules
- Spelling words correctly is not enough.
6 Comments
Post a CommentI've noticed typos in three of my AC articles. How embarrassing!
Very cute piece. I wouldn't trust Spell Check any farther than I could throw it, and I throw like a girl.
When I worked at our daily paper, a main editor was such a butcher that he was constantly inserting "incorrections" that made it through Spell Check. Some of these even led to words you wouldn't want a child to see. I don't want to go there and explain, except for this mild one: "Pee soup fog shuts down airport." A veteran co-worker of mine would shake his head and say, "Before word processors, it was really painstaking for an editor to go into your article and change something and mess it up. Now it happens all the time. Progress?" Thank you, Alicia.
Obvious and I say Duh! We need to know what we are typing and with education Spell Check is only a tool. Thanks for sharing.
Very funny. When my students had to write in class instead of on the computer, they came up with things like, "Diana, Princess of Whales" and "He took his wife for granite."
My biggest problem with replying on the spell checker is that it doesn't catch words that are spelled properly but used incorrectly. Like, "We went to the store in the tuck" instead of "the truck". That so grates me lol :] Great (not grate) article!