08 November 2004

Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.

Grumpy, quite sagely, cautions that when I make some really shoddy error here at Bex I shall be taken down mercilessly by a pack of wolves hungry to spill my blood. All metaphorically of course.

I understand the risks involved. Still, I choose to rant.

I'm becoming quite concerned - and, let's face it, also enraged - with the amount of poor spelling I see on the internet. (And I know the Little Red Rooster has a similar outlook.)

I would like to share a small thought. Before publishing, consider using the spell check. The spell check is notoriously fallible. Just to be on the safe side you could try using a dictionary as back-up.

What really bothers me is the sneaking suspicion I have that people out there are overriding their spell checks according to the way they pronounce a word. Very scary case in point: preformance. Like Chicken Man, it's everywhere, it's everywhere! I imagine a gentle hint from the computer, "How about we try performance instead?" "No, you dull machine, it's preformance - preformance. Duh. Ignore, ignore!"

I had a boss who would scrawl across pages in an angry hand, "Please use the spell check before submitting work to me!" What a shock for newcomers to the office to learn they'd stuffed up the spelling of words as simple as libary and secetary. They soon realised the wisest course of action was to say nothing and make the corrections.

Otherwise the bloke would go, like, totally nucular.

2 comments:

Livewire said...

I'm waiting for the Macquarie Dictionary to list the other meaning of 'pacific' - ie not vague.
Once they've sorted out that issue, they can move onto 'anythink' and other abominations.

hazelblackberry said...

Of course, not all mangling of the Q's E is annoying. I was charmed by the mad inventor on TV a couple of weeks ago who came out with the following pieces of PURE GOLD:

"One man's trash is another man's.....you know...richness."
"If you're not knowledged, you're not free."

His daughter quite proudly - and quite rightly - announced there was no dad better than her dad.