Things That Make You Go...WHAT?!?

[boogiewoogiebuglegal]

I'm presently wondering how it is someone can get through four years of high school, four years of college, three years of a post graduate degree, sit through the California State Bar (which is notoriously difficult) and still not know how to spell.

Worse, how does it not occur to you that your spelling IS bad (I get it, I'm bad at math, but I use a damned calculator or ask Google) and take some steps to correct that before you let it see the light of day?

The mind fairly boggles.

Comments

[ellid]

That's always bothered me as well.

[mrs_d]

It is mind-boggling, to be sure. As somebody with two English degrees, I used to get really pedantic about it, too. Now I try to give folks the benefit of the doubt — that they're busy, didn't think to give it a readthrough, etc. Another reason could be that they have dyslexia, or English isn't their first (or second, or third) language. Maybe they've gone through the steps that you outline to correct their mistakes. Maybe they spent hours proofreading that document, and they still missed a few.

...I don't know. I've come to the conclusion that spelling doesn't really matter all that much in the long run — especially once you realize that standardized spelling is actually very new in terms of the history of the language. My stance is, so long as you can understand what they're saying, what's the harm? (My old profs probably just got a chill down their spine! lol)

[boogiewoogiebuglegal]

I totally understand what you're saying, and in any other context? I'd be...hey, this isn't a big deal. It would have given me a serious eyetwitch but I would have let it go if it was just his own notes or something. (I'm incredibly pedantic with my own writing, but I'm aware that's me and my choice be that way.) BUT. This was in a professional context and it wouldn't have helped him (at all) had it been released the way he sent it to me.

So I was left kind of scratching my head. Spell-check would have caught about half the errors, but he didn't even run that. As we say in California, DUDE.

[mrs_d]

Hmph. Perhaps he thought it was your job to fix his mistakes *eye roll*

[boogiewoogiebuglegal]

Well, in the normal course of things--- it would have been my job (I'm a legal secretary, and proof-reading is only one of my many hats LOL.) But he bypassed our normal procedures by writing this document, and then when he realized that wasn't going to wash, he then realized it needed to go to me. IOW, the document he gave me wasn't his rough draft, it was intended to be his final one.

DUDE. *head/desk*

[mrs_d]

Yikes