Spellcheck
Thursday, February 17, 2005 by Mel
*Warning- What follows probably qualifies as a rant, and if you aren’t in the mood to read rantings or if you fear you might find yourself the culprit of things I will discuss, please breeze past this post and have a wonderful, rantless day.
I’m a huge fan of correct spelling and proper grammar. English was always my favorite subject in school; for a long time I assumed I'd be an English teacher. I'm not sure why I can recognize the minute details of grammatical structure but sometimes struggle to do simple math in my head. Call it a blessing or a curse, but if I didn't know the differences in they're, their, and there, all the engineers in my office would probably use the wrong one every time. I know that casual conversation, whether spoken or written, often ignores the rules in these areas, and even I have been known to forego a rule or two. Even so, I still believe that knowing the rules and applying them show some intelligence. Frequent spellcheckers, I applaud your efforts to maintain grammatical correctness.
There is a restaurant near my apartment that boasts a large illuminated sign with advertisements like “NOW OPEN MONDAYS” and “SPEND VALENTINES DAY WITH US” (Yes, Valentine’s requires an apostrophe, but most places seem to have given up using this crucial punctuation mark.) For the last month or so, it has had the following plea: “BOOK YOUR PARTYS HERE.” Okay. Who sees the problem? Wait for it…wait for it…that’s right, my friends, the signkeeper has committed one of the big errors of spelling. He/she has forgotten to change the singular Y to the plural IES. Yikes.
Every time I drive past this sign, I feel the need to go to my neighborhood eatery and ask if they would kindly correct their error. In my head, I think that anyone who sees the error will make a judgment about a) food quality, or b) employee intelligence. I also wonder if I am the only person who has noticed the problem, which makes me wonder about the state of our education system. Sadly, I’m sure the friendly waitstaff who greet patrons have nothing to do with the outdoor signage, and so I drive on home.
I would like to believe that there is a rational explanation for this problem. Perhaps they had run out of the letters I or E. (This wouldn’t have happened if not for the Valentine’s advertisement on the other side of the sign, and once again we can blame that icky holiday for society’s downfall.) If that is the case, though, the sensible thing to do is simply replace it with a word not requiring the missing letters. Anyone can book a party, but it takes a special person to book a blowout.
I’m a huge fan of correct spelling and proper grammar. English was always my favorite subject in school; for a long time I assumed I'd be an English teacher. I'm not sure why I can recognize the minute details of grammatical structure but sometimes struggle to do simple math in my head. Call it a blessing or a curse, but if I didn't know the differences in they're, their, and there, all the engineers in my office would probably use the wrong one every time. I know that casual conversation, whether spoken or written, often ignores the rules in these areas, and even I have been known to forego a rule or two. Even so, I still believe that knowing the rules and applying them show some intelligence. Frequent spellcheckers, I applaud your efforts to maintain grammatical correctness.
There is a restaurant near my apartment that boasts a large illuminated sign with advertisements like “NOW OPEN MONDAYS” and “SPEND VALENTINES DAY WITH US” (Yes, Valentine’s requires an apostrophe, but most places seem to have given up using this crucial punctuation mark.) For the last month or so, it has had the following plea: “BOOK YOUR PARTYS HERE.” Okay. Who sees the problem? Wait for it…wait for it…that’s right, my friends, the signkeeper has committed one of the big errors of spelling. He/she has forgotten to change the singular Y to the plural IES. Yikes.
Every time I drive past this sign, I feel the need to go to my neighborhood eatery and ask if they would kindly correct their error. In my head, I think that anyone who sees the error will make a judgment about a) food quality, or b) employee intelligence. I also wonder if I am the only person who has noticed the problem, which makes me wonder about the state of our education system. Sadly, I’m sure the friendly waitstaff who greet patrons have nothing to do with the outdoor signage, and so I drive on home.
I would like to believe that there is a rational explanation for this problem. Perhaps they had run out of the letters I or E. (This wouldn’t have happened if not for the Valentine’s advertisement on the other side of the sign, and once again we can blame that icky holiday for society’s downfall.) If that is the case, though, the sensible thing to do is simply replace it with a word not requiring the missing letters. Anyone can book a party, but it takes a special person to book a blowout.
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