Some adults do not spell well. If it’s you, you probably know it. Misspelling is bad for your career, and can be embarrassing. When someone notices your misspelled words, often they will be embarrassed for you without telling you.
Let others help you. Tell your family and co-workers, “I’m not very good at spelling, and I would like you to help me. Will you please point out when I misspell a word so I can get better? I’d really appreciate it!” When you are corrected, make a special effort to learn that word and not make the mistake again.
Now you don’t have to be embarrassed and have a dozen tutors!
One thing that I always do is proof read for spelling & grammar.My spelling and grammar are pretty good, but, my typing isn’t so great as I tend to type quickly and make mistakes. Proof reading also gives me a chance to think about what I’ve written and to decide if I need to add, modify, or delete what I’ve written.
Hi Larry !
Spell check is the answer.
Have a great weekend!
Oh, congratulations on Baja !!!
I spell words wrong on purpose, not here. I use it to gain attention to an idea or as humor. I also sprinkle in a little French, German or whatever ….. And do not forget unconventional punctuation or capitalization. Bad spelling on purpose ist kein problem.
Baja was a GREAT idea and very well executed!!!
I have to agree and appreciate the sentiment about spelling, as I sit on the side of being a good speller… and along the lines of grammar, what is a tactful way to help a friend and employee who only incorrectly uses the past tense of “seen” instead of “saw”… I have a fairly good toolbox of tact, but in the years of knowing this person, I cannot gather the right words to help him rather than to embarrass him.. :/
I always enjoy your words, Larry! Thanks to my friends, the DiGregorios for introducing me to Think Daily…
Amen to that, brother. Proper spelling and grammar will never go out of style. You and your business are judged by your writing, whatever format you use. Keep it clean and accurate.
Larry, I enjoy readying your blogs especially following the BAJA triumph. Being afflicted with the bad typing bug I have had to learn to pay attention.
Typing erors,pour spelling or grammar can have a negative impact on how people judge us and how knowledgable we are about our subject matter. Giving a great presentation or in our case energy audit of a home and then presenting the customer with a pourly written report or other correspondence can loose business.
I have found that I need to proof read after I have taken a break away from what I wrote. If done too quickly after writing I often read what should be there and not what is actually written. The brain plays tricks on us and spell check doesn’t always catch mistakes in grammar or spelling.
The counter point to this is that perfect is the enemy of good enough. If I am rushed, but want to get a point out there, I do not worry that much about a mistake here and there. In some cases getting the message out fast is more important than doing it perfectly.
Not a sermon, just a thought.
Larry, my mother, your Grandmother Helen, at the age of 16, immigrated from Hungary, where the language is very complex. She studied vocabulary and spelling her entire life. As kids, we used to make fun of her spelling,but she never stopped trying to learn. Imagine if we had to move to Hungary and learn that most difficult language. She loved cross-word puzzles and the Reader’s Digest vocabulary page. I think the message is never stop learning or trying to improve your self. She is surely smiling down at you now.
After you are done typing or writing,read what you wrote backwards. It forces you to look at the entire word backwards and then forwards doubling your chances to pick up a spelling error. This method works for me.
Two things in life that should not be done — represent yourself in court and proofread your own work. There’s never any harm in asking others to review your work. And if someone hands something to you and says “it looks good to me,” leave it for a couple minutes and read it by yourself!
Best wishes for a great holiday season!
What about those despotic auto-spellcheckers such as Yahoo and Google have that will not only “spellcheck” but also SUBSTITUTE their own words for words they don’t, for some reason, deem “right”–thereby, changing the entire context of your e-mail message?
There are some great points here! Spell check does not pick up everything, as in Sheila’s example above with the incorrect use of “loose”. Carl mentioned not proofreading your own work. I actually proofread Think Daily and I catch a good amount of mainly simple typos. I’ve always been good with spelling, grammar and punctuation. Sometimes I miss a Think Daily, or sometimes one gets sneaked in over the weekend. Sometimes, my eyes and Larry’s eyes glance over the exact same mistake! You also have to imagine how Larry wants you read it – it’s not always conventional – but I can hear him in my head speaking it, so where he wants a specific break there may be a comma where there wouldn’t be from a punctuation point of view.
You know it’s true love when you write letters to your future spouse and they come back with red pen marking the grammar and spelling. I learned through my wife who is my best friend and best teacher of all when it comes to spelling and grammar. Of course you know when a person really cares about you they correct you all the time without hesitation.