Wriging

This reminds me of a Saturday Night Live sketch, when the rapper Ludacris (aka Chris Bridges) hosted.

During his opening monologue, Ludacris is joined on-stage by SNL actor Keenan Thompson, who claims he's decided to pursue rapping as a career. He tell Ludacris that he's chosen 'Rick-Diculous' as his rap monker!

"That's ludicrous!" the real rapper responds.

Note to your point: I had to check Dictionary.com for the correct spelling of 'ludicrous.'

Thank you Rich! I try not to be a grammar nazi or a spelling nazi but when so many people consistently misspell common words it's really frustrating. Another one that bugs the tar out of me is when people use "then" instead of "than."

I fear that the internet is slowly chipping away at any spelling skills I once possessed. I made a post a while ago about how I think I'm going to start making the same spelling mistakes I witness being done by others over and over.

and its realize not realise = thanks.

Not if you're British it isn't.

Rediculous is a straight up error. Realise is just a location-specific spelling.

Dictionary.com's own definition concurs, in case there was any doubt:

Also, especially British, re·al·ise.

Honestly, I think part of the issue (not the whole issue, but at least part of it) is that the Net spans cultures and languages. English is a very hard language to master and for many people it's their second language. I do believe that many of the spelling errors I encounter are due to this, which is why I don't readily correct people.

I'm not correcting anyone, just informing anyone that may be making the mistake!

I've seen enough native English speakers doing it too, anyway.

Honestly, I think part of the issue (not the whole issue, but at least part of it) is that the Net spans cultures and languages.

Sure, if they weren't born in America or if English isn't their first language, I'm not gonna hang them. But a lot of people I catch butchering the simplest words went to much better schools than me.

Sure, if they weren't born in America OR BRITAIN or if English isn't their first language, I'm not gonna hang them.

People, come on! There are places outside America speaking English.

We also do it better than you.
That's right. I went there.

Let's look at this:

Sorry, that's been bugging me. Numerous people are consistently misspelling that.

1) You made an entry pointing out people's errors because it bugged you. No other way around it.

2) Numerous people = 3

3) Consistently? I don't think so. Three people out of of thousands of notes.

Be honest, you came across the misspelled word, it irked you, you wrote about it. How would you feel if you were one of those people, and someone pointed out your errors? Because of irritation?

I don't think there is a blogger out there that didn't misspell something. It looked right at the time or they didn't even realize they spelled it wrong in the first place. Or the word processing program they used didn't catch it so something they might have questioned they left alone.

And it's not like users can, if they realize it next time they come back (couple hours later), can edit their error. The system doesn't allow it.

It's a consistent error among the people making the error, not the notes themselves - i.e. the few people spelling it wrong are doing so consistently.

It seemed obvious there were more than a few people that didn't know how to spell ridiculous, and now they do. End of story.

Pedantic? Sure. A big deal? Hardly.

And for the record, I'd be grateful if someone pointed out an error I'd made, particularly one I was making consistently.

Rich (since you asked) it's disastrous not disasterous.

Thank you very much for proving my point because even you make spelling mistakes.

Everyone makes spelling mistakes. I fail to see the issue in making them aware of the proper spelling.

Rich it's how you did it. You pointed it out because it irked you without any consideration of how they would feel coming here and reading about your irritation. You didn't send them a PM, an email, etc. you let the entire world know.

I'm not trying to be mean but this is a global community. Yes there are college educated people here. I know for a fact 2 of the 3 that made the error are college educated, considered top in their fields. They made a mistake and what I hope is that this doesn't become a place where people point out errors.

Instead start a note on common spelling mistakes without pointing out other people's mistakes. Or start a series on improving writing skills - something everyone could benefit from.

There are ways to do things - that's what I'm saying.

Sure, if they weren't born in America OR BRITAIN or if English isn't their first language, I'm not gonna hang them.

Desperate to get hanged?

I think you've interpreted my initial post wrongly, Tyme. (Or I've worded it badly.) I didn't mean to come off as irritated, because I'm not. My only intention was to point out a common error.

My apologies if I offended anyone.

Everyone makes spelling mistakes. I fail to see the issue in making them aware of the proper spelling.

Umm isnt that "exactly" what you were doing?

Not offended at all....(just me talkin tho)...

*Tyme give Rich a big hug

That said, I did have some thoughts about this because I had a large community before and I know from that experience what is to come. I was thinking about perhaps some tutorials or something everyone could benefit from. Not only here on notes but on their blogs.

Is there a way to spellcheck notes? I don't know about you all, but I'm a tidy sort, and would use a feature like that all the time.

Rich, I noticed that error too. I think it's a reflection of the way Americans say the word. I have a friend -- a man in his sixties -- who was a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore Lab and then after his retirement became a widely published poet. He consistently wrote "rediculous." And then one day I gave him a hard time about it and now he writes it "reediculous."

Haha, bloglily. The thought that the mistake is probably from the pronunciation crossed my mind too. Another American vs British thing, I guess.

As for spell-checking, if you use Firefox 2, you have that built in. (I had to specifically enable it, though.)

Mac OS X allows you to spell check any text field. You can even turn it on permanently for a given field (such as the response field in Notes).

Rich and Justin-- You guys are awesome. I use Firefox2. And OSX. (I wonder if there's a thinkcheck feature someplace in firefox -- now THAT would come in handy.) I'm going to see if I can figure that out.

xo

There are applications for Windows that will give you that functionality too, if you're a Windows user. I can't think of any names offhand, but I'd suggest starting at Lifehacker.

Hhmm... I've never had issues with people who misspell. If I feel they should be corrected I do it privately and try not to embarrass them (in fact I think people would prefer you didn't, right?)

Besides, I can still understand what they meant, right? Isn't that really the point?

Hell, why am I even using capitalization? It's a freaking 'note'.

Sure, if they weren't born in America OR BRITAIN or if English isn't their first language, I'm not gonna hang them.

How about swapping the first clause out for: " if they weren't born in England or if English isn't their first language" -- American is not English.

But as other people have said the internet is about communication. We should be here to communicate as best we can, not belittle people on how poor their spelling or typing is... If the scope allows for educating how to spell or use a work correctly though, perhaps that's ok...

When you have similar dialects of a language (take the pure and powerful English English vs the poor and pathetic excuse of a language that is American-English), you can't really justify pulling people up on it unless they're mixing or pulling you up for putting "u" in the correct place and they don't like it.

Firefox's spell-checker is a life-saver though. It does pick up a ton of errors I would normally have made and I do think being corrected has helped my spelling.