Don’t sweat the spelling – they can read it just fine!
June 22nd, 2010 3 Comments
Lots of people get all fretted up about grammar. The Grammar Nazis of this world continue to put the frighteners on the many who are impressed by rules known only by the few. But, since you're reading this, you're probably in the words business, in one way or another, so you may be like many of us who, after going through a phase of flirting with grammar fascism, have learned to relax and enjoy the magnificent beauty and power of the English language, with its huge expressive scope. And, with a little reading, you've probably figured out for yourself that if the greatest writers in the English language don't worry themselves with strict adherence to the rules laid down by the great grammar expert of the day, then there's no reason you should be so hampered. And if linguistics is your thing, Language Log is a great place to go if you're looking for a sane and inquisitive approach to grammar.
But spelling's different. Isn't it?
Surely we can never afford to lower our defences against misspelling? Spelling comes in two flavours: right and wrong. Right? And if you let spelling errors slip through then no one will be able to understand what you're on about. One spelling slip and your credibility crumbles ... You get the picture.
Well, that's what I've always thought. So I was surprisingly interested in an email Patricia forwarded on to me today. "Surprisingly" because it was one of those pass-it-on emails that used to do the rounds but which, thankfully, you don't get so much any more. Usually they have a list of lame jokes or pictures and at the end they tell you to email it to your friends. Usually I save them straight to my Trash folder. But this one contained some simple editing-type tests (for example, spotting a single N in a block of Ms) and then ended with this:
I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed this forwrad it
It is amazing how easy it is to read this. And it did make me stop and ask myself: maybe I should lay off the obsessive marking up of every piddling little spelling mistake when I'm sent documents to review. As long as the first and last letter are correct, why worry?
Yeh, right!
I take a liberal, progressive approach to grammar. But I think I'll stick to my hard-line approach to spelling.
Potentially similar posts
- Deleting those pesky lines in Microsoft Word – August 2010
- ITauthor podcast #28 – Professor Geoffrey Pullum and the Elements of Style – April 2009
- Appendixes or appendices – and who cares anyway? – April 2009
- ITauthor podcast #20 – The Mallcast – November 2008
- "themself"? – November 2008



June 24th, 2010 at 6:27 pm (#)
I agree with you, Alistair! A couple of transposed letters or minor typos will not keep someone from understanding a quickly typed e-mail message, but anyone whose livelyhood depends on prose prowess can't get too sloppy. Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation are what put the professional polish on our products. We can have great ideas and create cool documents, but poor spelling etc. makes the writer look like an amatuer.
June 24th, 2010 at 6:47 pm (#)
Thanks for commenting.
Yes, one daft spelling error and the reader will immediately lose confidence: if they can't even get the spelling right how can I rely on anything else being correct?
June 24th, 2010 at 8:23 pm (#)
I agree. I was reading a blog not today and the multiple spelling errors were gleaming very brightly. Unfortunately for the author, I knocked his credibility down a few notches. Typos I can understand; but more than 3 words (out of 100) misspelled? That's a pretty bad ratio. It bothers me that many people spread these kind of thrown-together articles across twitter like they're the best thing since [insert favorite invention here].
PS: I love my Firefox spellchecker. It beats having to proofread every comment so thoroughly!