Can you spell TYPO ?

Like typing Typos instead of typographical errors

As long as I can understand it and I didn't hire them as a writer, I can forgive my fellow man for misspellings. I wish poor grammar was our biggest problem.

If it happens that one adds a wrongly spelled word to their dictionary because one believes one's spelling is also correct, later he/she would end up with a typo every time he/she has to write that word. Naturally I too have my own spellings for some words but I check the dictionary's suggestion before adding to it. Sometimes I overlook in hurry to publish articles and hence end up with typos. Nevertheless they are easy to spot if you read your articles now and then.

I find sweeping generalities with no evidence to back them up much more annoying. You might want to read this PDF by Paul Myers: Wombat Report

By the way, are you sure "pet-peeve" should be hyphenated? :rolleyes:

One more by the way, if typos are a sign of intelligence, should we all make more typos so we appear more intelligent? :confused:

True Warrior Form - :rolleyes:

Writing is a form of communication. The point of communication is to make sure the readers clearly understand the message. As long as that outcome is met does it really matter if there are a few spelling errors? Of course care must be taken that your misspelling doesn't convey a completely different meaning from that intended and this is where ignorance is an issue. For example, if you mean to question what the problem is you would ask " Where is the problem?" rather than "Wear is the problem?" which is questioning if the problem is "wear" (an erosion or decaying due to friction).

Kewl. I have a degree in linguistics. Actually, anyone fully competent in spelling in English is pretty close to being an idiot savant.

Sales copy - Edit and correct.

Chat in a forum - don't bother with it. Let your idiosyncrasies show. Some people can actually get drifts about who you are just by the mistakes you make. I'll be damned if I'm gonna go through the trouble of pulling the dictionary out just to chat with pals. If someone else wants to be anal about it - they can be anal about it all day and night and I'm still not gonna pull my dictionary out. I already know the words I'd wanna use for that one. Every once in a while though you will see me use (sp?) because at the time I actually really do wonder if the word is spelled right. Still not gonna go get my dictionary just to chat with my pals.

You're kidding, RIGHT?

1. WHAT computer, or even phone, has BUILT IN(meaning built into the BIOS) spell check? I have NEVER heard of it, and it WOULD be rather senseless on a computer, but without that, it will NOT be usable EVERYWHERE.

2. Ever hear of time, or hardware failure? Some of my typos are like THAT! I may drop a character, or transpose a coule. SEE, I left THAT "mistake" or "typo" in JUST FOR YOU! The "p" was dropped. I typed it, but it didn't register.

3. What counts as a typo? You could leave out some words, like you did in your rant, or use the wrong word. The UK and the US have sime(Sorry, I slipped up! Those characters ARE close!) different spellings. Are THEY wrong?

4. Some non native english speakers may just misspell things. Want to know a secret? pssst! Languages don't even have the same rules! A GERMAN spell checker won't have a clue about most English words!

BTW I used the term "BUILT IN". That IS the proper term, because it is BUILT IN! But a popular way of saying it is "BUILD IN". That is WRONG, but most spell checkers will NOT catch it! I could say that I will BUILD a computer JUST as I could say that I have BUILT something INto it. Grammer checkers are STILL not perfect and, AGAIN, US and british english are a bit different. They are also FAR from ubiquitous.

Steve

BTW do *I* know how to spell typo? Well, SOMETIMES, because of a timing issue in typing, I HAVE slipped up and typed tpyo I believe. Of course, my FAVORITE is something like rtoi! Check it out, and you will see how that COULD happen. There HAVE been times when I have done THAT! I don't THINK I have with the word typo, but I HAVE with the word "rgw"! Of course, in such cases, I generally catch it and correct it.

Steve

Dennis - everyone wants to be a critic. I have developed a 0 tolerance level (as you can tell from my last post) for people harping on spelling, etc. in forum chat. It takes a small mind not to realize that when someone is flashing out a response to a thread that if they type "to" instead of "too" it's not a sign that they are drooling idiots. You can tell someone is linguistically challenged if they do things such as use wrong verb forms with regularity - but to insist on perfection in conversation is bull hockey. This is nothing more than conversational speech that we are forced to type rather than speak. It's spontaneous and should remain so. It's actually a sign of ignorance to insist on perfection in colloquial situations. Some of these self-righteous language Nazis would crap bricks if they ever saw an unedited version of a book from their favorite authors.

In literature, it's very important to edit out errors. In spontaneous discussion - not so much. If wanna-be experts spent as much time digesting and determining the value of what was being said as they do worrying about if a word was spelled correctly, they might even develop some neurons. They'd freak if we got into each of their posts and started in on things like "hey, you are missing a referent in that sentence".

Well said, Sal. There are plenty of professionally edited books with typos and grammar mistakes in them as well. In fact, I'd bet almost every book in print has at least three mistakes in it if you grade it against every grammar rule. As someone who has had three books published I can tell you it's practically impossible to find and fix them all.

The process with my publisher goes like this:

1. After I write a chapter I proofreed it and correct errors. Then I print it out and proof it. Some things jump out on paper than don't on the screen. Plus, spelling and grammar corrections are turned on in Word so it finds some of the errors for me.

2. Once I'm satisfied I send it to my editor one chapter at a time. The editor proofs it and makes corrections and sends them back to me for my approval or rebuttal. Most of them I accept, some I fight for what I had originally written.

3. Once my editor and I are in agreement the end result is sent to my project manager, who reads it and usually picks up an error or two that my editor and I both missed. Corrections are made.

4. Once this is done for the entire book it's sent to the typesetter, who of course reads every word and often finds a mistake to two everyone has missed. That's communicated to me via email and I make the corrections.

5. Then a loose leaf copy is printed and sent to me for me to proofread to look for any typesetting errors. I usually find a few, plus another correction or two in my own writing. Then I send all the corrections back to the typesetter and the book goes to print.

Then when the book comes out, I usually find one or two mistakes that made it past all the human eyes and the software spell checkers.

Publishing perfection isn't likely, anywhere. Authors don't get paid for perfection, they get paid for communicating effectively.