spelling

True writer confession – I am a horrible speller

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Writers are suppose to be good at writing stuff, right? Except there are so many elements that go into writing, some depending on what you are writing.  I don’t know how you could master all of them. Every time I think I understand one part of plot writing I find an article that takes me to another level of recognizing what I don’t know. But at least I can compete there.

True story, I got into computers because they had spell-check. That and my handwriting is not even legible to me. Computers were a gift from the technology gods telling me that I was born to be a software engineer and a writer. Another true fact, I passed college English because I amused my teacher by writing subroutines for grammar rules.  If you can’t be brilliant be witty.

Part of the problem is I am relatively bright otherwise, but my low point intellectually is spelling. Compounding the problem is I have a fantastic vocabulary. So I regularly try and use words I know, but I can’t spell. I frustrate spell check on a regular basis. My spelling is so bad it even confuses Google.

Of course English is made up of so many different rules and has evolved from a bunch of different languages. So it is not like it is completely my fault. Homonyms, homophones, and homographs don’t help at all.

Add that to the fact that I spell how words sound and I come from Massachusetts where we have a distinct problem with rearranging the “r”s in our speech and I give up!

How about you? Do you have any true writing confessions?

Have a great day!

Paula

 

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I Don't Tolerate Poor Grammar

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This essay by Cheryl Connor originally appeared on Forbes on 10/21/12.

And I’m not alone. Even the Wall Street Journal agrees.

Poor grammar and writing is an epidemic in the workplace. While the era of social media and texting has caused many to believe it’s a problem they couldn’t resolve, a number of businesses are finally finding the nerve to crack down. A recent HBR article by Kyle Wiens, I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar, noted wryly that in his company, anyone who thinks an apostrophe was one of the 12 apostles or who tosses commas around with the abandon of a shotgun would be fortunate to find their way to the foyer before he shows them the door.

His article drew 3,013 comments (ironically, many of them taking him to task for ending a sentence with a preposition and referring to “company” in the plural, a convention that while common in American English is apparently still frowned upon overseas.) Which brings up another point – have you ever noticed how much argument a discussion of grammar inspires? It seems the “grammar police” are most vigilant about the 1-2 archaic rules they hold dear, while they blithely break or ignore the dozens of rules they don’t know.

 

Read the full post on Forbes.

 

What We Talk About When We Talk About Grammar

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This post by John E. McIntyre originally appeared on The Baltimore Sun on 10/3/14.

Online, discussions of grammar tend to display confusion about what the subject is, and the usual admixture of rubbish and emotion does not help.

There is, of course, the confusion between grammar as grammarians and linguists discuss it technically, and spelling and punctuation. But other, unstated meanings are often involved.

A post by Lucy Ferriss at Lingua Franca, “Grammar: The Movie,” identifies some of the additional meanings that surface in a new documentary.

 

Spelling errors: If you write it’s for its in your cover letter or resume, or confuse there/their/they’re, you’re probably not going to get the job. But these are merely spelling errors, as likely the result of carelessness as ignorance. Of course, they’re obvious, so easy to spot that even a manager can see them, but they are still trivial.

 

Bad writing: Lord knows there is plenty of slack, inexpert, and impenetrable writing to be found, but that is not a problem for grammarians to address. Academic writing, for example, is notoriously wordy and opaque, but it is usually grammatical.

 

Read the full post on The Baltimore Sun.

 

Bubble Vocabulary: The Words You Almost Know, Sometimes Use, But Are Secretly Unsure Of.

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This post by Seth Stevenson originally appeared on Slate on 4/29/14.

Shibboleth. Casuistry. Recondite.

A little while back, I was chatting with a friend when he described a situation as “execrable.” He pronounced it “ex-EH-crable.” I’d always thought it was “EX-ecrable.” But execrable is a word I’d mostly just read in books, had rarely heard spoken, and had never once, in my whole life, uttered aloud—in large part because I wasn’t exactly sure how to say it, and because the nuances of its definition (beyond “bad”) escaped me.

Since we have a trusting, forthright relationship, I decided to broach the topic. “Is that how you pronounce that word?” I asked. “And what exactly does it mean?” Here my friend confessed he was not 100 percent certain on either count. He added that, earlier that same day, he’d pronounced avowed with three syllables and then immediately wondered if it might only have two.

We’ve all experienced moments in which we brush up against the ceilings of our personal lexicons. I call it “bubble vocabulary.” Words on the edge of your ken, whose definitions or pronunciations turn out to be just out of grasp as you reach for them. The words you basically know but, hmmm, on second thought, maybe haven’t yet mastered?

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes a Bubble Vocabulary quiz, on Slate.