Spelling Errors: Stupid? Lazy? Or A-OK?

[Gn2Dlnd]

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

The following snippet of text has been circulating on the net for a while: "... randomising letters in the middle of words [has] little or no effect on the ability of skilled readers to understand the text. This is easy to denmtrasote. In a pubiltacion of New Scnieitst you could ramdinose all the letetrs, keipeng the first two and last two the same, and reibadailty would hadrly be aftcfeed. My ansaylis did not come to much beucase the thoery at the time was for shape and senqeuce retigcionon. Saberi's work sugsegts we may have some pofrweul palrlael prsooscers at work. The resaon for this is suerly that idnetiyfing coentnt by paarllel prseocsing speeds up regnicoiton. We only need the first and last two letetrs to spot chganes in meniang."

Ecch, that's horrible. I had to slow down and read each and every word, one at a time, to figure out what that said. "Ramdinose," in particular, stumped me. The whole thing made me feel like my head was being squeezed. Now, I just used the word, "like," incorrectly. I see this a lot, I do it a lot. I believe it's become common usage. Nevertheless, when I see it, it grates. Mrs. Eckert, my first grade teacher, taught us that, "Although the commercial claims, 'Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should,' it should really be, 'Winston tastes good, as a cigarette should.'" 'Like' should not be used in place of 'as,' or 'as if.'

Here's another one I've seen, lately. "Peak the curiosity." Pique, as in what I shall be in a fit of if you keep using the wrong word.

Also, "queue line." It's a queue or it's a line, saying both tells me that you're getting in line to stand in line. Or on line if you're a Brit. And it's not cue line, that's what another actor says before it's my turn to speak onstage.

I do tend to start sentences with ands and ors. My particular bad grammar habit. That, and apparently no predicates. I always think that spelling, punctuation, and word choice, indicates what the writer thinks of his audience, and what he wants to convey about himself. On line with friends, I'm casual. In business, I'm informed and trustworthy. When you know the rules, you can have more fun playing with the language. Or, as I'm sure happens to me occasionally, come off as a prig. But a smart prig. In high school, I remember one instance where I was watching ants on the floor of shop class. Another student asked me what I was doing, I explained that ants communicated through pheromones and that's why they were touching antennae. He gave me such a look of disgust, and said, "Can't you just say 'talk' like everyone else?" I didn't bother to tell him that ants can't talk, but it does illustrate why I got beat up a lot. Now I choose my words for my audience.

One more thing, "lightening" is what you do to a cup of coffee by adding creamer. "Lightning" is what precedes thunder.

I think words are important.