Mistakes Of Writing
Read more articles on Life and Writing and Let Me Share With You.April 5, 2007
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
April 5, 2007
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
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Are you one of those people who check what you write about a dozen times before you email, send, or turn it in? If so, I commend you. If not, I have to ask, how can you stand having mistakes floating around on your work? Does that not drive you crazy?
It has to be one of those things to which only writers are susceptible. I have been known to fret all day because I used one improper verb tense in a 1000 word article. As soon as I can make a beeline to a computer, I do, and only then can I breathe easier. And, let me just hope I don’t spell something incorrectly, or use the wrong word all together-there’s no peace for me until I make it right.
That’s happened with my writing here on the Compendium. (We are responsible for our own editing.) I’ve been known to double check and triple check, and still realize a half hour after hitting “publish” that a better phrase should have been used. It’s like nails on a blackboard or a mosquito bite where I can’t reach-absolutely aggravating.
I don’t know why words have that power over me, but I guess it must mean that I’m doing something that I’m passionate about. I’ve seen stuff online that has such atrocious spelling I can’t even finish reading it. I wish I could just let it go and say, “Oh, so what? I know what they mean.” Hah-when donkeys fly. Words, as I’ve said in my article here in “Finding The Words”, have power and meanings beyond our literal interpretation-and written words have much more than verbal.
This is a lesson I wished I’d learned earlier in life, as it’s difficult, or even impossible, to retract the written word once it’s left your fingers. More adults than I need to learn that lesson, however. You’d think that with so much online communication, our writing skills would be honed. Hah again. Years from now, I bet there will be entire books published in the abbreviated style of Instant Messaging communication. Just think, two or three generations down the road, spelling as we know it could be obsolete. I guess writing, as a profession, will be obsolete as well. Will we then still be considered a “civilized society”? It’s something to think about…
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