Copy Editing Posts

[mso489]

No one wants to be the Forums grammar lady/gent, so when I see someone else's real blooper, I just pass it by, and figure it is a sign I need to take time to re-read and copy edit my own posts. Even when I'm firing on nearly all cylinders, spell check likes to throw in crazy jive that completely changes and/or obliterates the meaning. Like what the hell was that? Subject-verb agreement likes to change as you draft posts. Sometimes I'm doing two or more things at once and pass off some shabby language, but usually I proof-read and try to get said what I mean. Better to do a shaky post than none at all.

 

[Casual]

Recently the autocorrect feature on my phone seems to have shifted to a new system. It uses machine learning that takes into account context as well as dictionaries to screw up my post incomprehensibly. It even goes back a word or two making changes, so I can’t even just scan the current word as I type anymore.

Needless to say, I want to throw it into the I Love My iPhone.

 

[prndl]

I have 10 balloons on each hand. Most people call them "fingers".

They're not that good for typing but, they're great for other things.

 

[Sonorisis]

It's been my experience that sometimes Siri is drunk.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Tom, if memory serves you were at some point a journalist. For what it's worth, so was my late father. He worked for his local newspaper and also worked for some years for Reuters. Indeed I am named after Julius Reuter!

Now, as the only son of five children (with hopes I would follow his trade) I had it drilled into me from my earliest years the importance of correct spelling, correct grammar and correct diction.

As life turned out I never followed him in his vocation but for no reason other than he was a brute! Not only to me but to my mother and my four sisters, however, what he drilled into me has stayed and is one of the few things that I can thank him for.

The English language is a unique thing and should be treasured by those who speak it so to answer your question Tom, yes, it is very important members proof check what they have written afore hitting the send button lest they cause confusion by typing badly spelled words or wrongly used phrases.

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[mingc]

My favorite quite about typos:

Sometimes I'll spend an hour writing a tiny email. I work on it until I've created the illusion that I've dashed it off in three minutes. If I make a typo, I let it stand. Sometimes in fact I correct the typo without thinking, and then I back up and retype the typo so that it'll look more casual. I don't know why. - Nicholson Baker

 

[verporchting]

Most smartphones now come equipped with autocorrupt, making grammar errors a think of the past. Er, yeah, like that.

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

As someone who worked as a professional typesetter for several years, I can testify that Spell-Check is useful, Add-To-Dictionary is wonderful for local place names &c, but Autocorrupt is the most dreadful software ever coded.

 

[mso489]

I can understand people whose skills sets lean more toward something other than language. I envied the kids who found mathematical notation intuitively obvious. One h.s. math teacher barely spoke, and the mathematically inclined did just fine with that. I didn't. However, all of the sometimes annoying trappings of language have good purpose and use, or maybe I should say much of it does. I also realize that some people have a deeper understanding of language and can move from different families of languages to learn Mandarin and Sanskrit. At whatever level you write, reading over what you've written always pays off. Just getting rid of typos is a big step toward making yourself understood. Okay, English class is over. Thanks for your attention.