Friday, March 7, 2008

spelling erors

I usually don't blog about things as they happen, but I feel I must right now.

I'm watching WTHR for the evening news. They are talking about the Pacers, informing the viewers that David Harrison has been suspended for a game (I missed the reason why). The text on the screen reads the following: "Harrison disaplined."

I'm thinking that it's supposed to read "Harrison disciplined." But you never know...

I would like to think that the ability to spell correctly is an important quality in a reporter, but perhaps not. Maybe too many reporters depend upon spellcheck.

4 comments:

  1. IDK, Matt ... Y such a big deel over splg in a txting genr8shn?

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  2. at least you knew what he meant, if it was misspelled here in NC they would have not only said it this way, it would have read "dees'pleend"

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  3. I'm a professional copy editor, and I often see spelling errors in public, and I point them out. My wife jokingly says she's going to authorize a spelling error on my tombstone. (At least I think she's joking.) I can understand that spelling errors occur, but it bothers me in the following situations:

    Anything communication related to education. It just doesn't feel right to read a teacher's note to parents with numerous misspellings.

    Anything presented to the public that's designed to impress: Do I really want to eat at a restaurant that can't pay enough attention to detail that it misspells "filet mignon" on the menu? Should I question a political candidate's attentiveness to details when he allows campaign material that misspells "Washington"? (Hello, Jon Elrod.)

    In legal, health and safety documents, it's absolutely vital that words are spelled correctly.

    OK, just call me a word nerd.

    jawn

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  4. Jawn: you're such a word nerd.

    Seriously though, I don't think that "discipline" is an extremely hard word to spell. I don't know if it's just laziness, or what it might be. The next time I saw a story about Harrison on WTHR, the word was spelled correctly.

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