what do you when

[barbtries]

you're a little anal about grammar and spelling, and you like a post or a tweet or whatever, and it has this error that just LEAPS at your eyes and offends your inner spelling nerd, and you wanna like it, or rec it, but you really want to correct it?

here's a tweet:
Jail Donald Drumpf? @DTrumpExposed
Replying to @DTrumpExposed @realDonaldTrump

If you really believe that Russian medalling is OK then you should study history.


medalling. not a word, not a word. but i like the message. i think i know that @realDonaldTrump never reads the replies to his tweets, but i still like doing it and seeing that others do it, because maybe he does, and maybe he will either get a clue (haha, ain't happening), or melt down entirely (much more likely imo)

how hard is it to right click on the word that has the red squiggly line under it? maybe you don't get that on phones and phones are probably where most tweets come from.

anyhow. gone on and on about something really trivial. i think i just want some validation that i am not the only one who's this way.

[malaise]

1. Agree it's not a word but even if it was, the writer should have used meddling

which would have been the correct word.
That said over the decades I had lots of students who could not spell but who raised serious questions and some actually understood the relevant subject.

[barbtries]

2. it's true.

i think spelling is a talent that some people don't have. when i was 14 i was spell checking for my brother who was in college and was an absolutely abysmal speller.

also, just read a thread where i called Christy an "ashole"! the timing made me laugh. and i fixed it of course.

[malaise]

3. Well I had to correct a word

Last edited Sat Jul 29, 2017, 03:05 PM - Edit history (1)

in my reply to you. Hehehehehhe - still spelling is different than not knowing the difference between medal and meddle. It's the sphere of sport - mostly Olympic and T & F commentators who use medal as a verb - it is so wrong. I cringe every time I hear it.

[barbtries]

11. it's really common.

not that word specifically i've never seen that before, but simple misspellings of a lot of words. hehe

so part of it is our fingers don't move as fast as our minds. i am guilty as anyone

[tblue37]

5. "Medalling," or "medaling," is a word--Phelps is famous for medalling (medaling)

in so many events in so many different Olympic Games.

[barbtries]

12. spell check

may not agree with turning medal into a verb. but he could have written middling or maddling or any other words. in the context the word is meddling and he got that wrong. but i'm over it now!

[tblue37]

14. Yes, of course it is the wrong word in that sentence. I was just pointing out that

it actually is a word.

I teach college English and do a lot of freelance editing and proofreading.To protect your blood pressure, you might try adopting my attitude toward other people's errors: [bI won't correct their errors or take responsibility for them unless someone is paying me to do so.

That attitude has kept me calm when reading on the internet.

Oh, and because autocorrect is so hyperactive, and my clumsy old fingers struggle to hit the correct keys (and only the correct keys) on little mobile keyboards, I forgive not just other people but even myself for typos, since even when I correct them, autocorrect often changes them back just before I hit "post."

[barbtries]

15. yeah all bets are off

when i'm on the phone. for instance i cannot seem to ever get thank right. it always comes tgank. i don't use the auto correct on my phone but i am not nimble on the keyboard either.

eh. thanks. it is really small potatoes especially these days

[tblue37]

16. I keep inserting a random "d" or "g" into my words. nt

[unc70]

7. "...even if it were...

Could not resist.

[tblue37]

4. You write

<sic> next to it (though square brackets would be proper, DU uses those for HTML tags, so you would need to use angle brackets or parentheses to post it on DU).

Writing <sic> next to the error tells the reader that you recognize the error, but you are just quoting it exactly as it was originally written.

[barbtries]

8. okay

that makes sense. thank you

[lunatica]

6. If all his tweets end up on record in the government archives

this will be an interesting time for future historians. I like that idea.

[barbtries]

9. they should.

didn't someone already compile a library of his tweets?

ah, yes. comedy central
http://www.cc.com/shows/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah/trump-twitter-library

[asiliveandbreathe]

10. Like nails on a chalkboard - funny you should bring this up -

I have had some here at DU bring my spelling mistakes to my attention..forget the substance of what I posted...alas, my reply is always, most of the time, tks...other times, bigger fish to fry... ho hum - I am truly not trying to be mean -

I use..... or - or , way too much..or not enuf..(lol)

Now, a funny story, I had a disagreement w/then boyfriend (mid 80s), hubby today - we were visiting friends in VA - I left him there, and drove home to Mass.....(long story), anyway (see, I didn't use anyways), he wrote me a letter from VA (he had decided to stay on for a short while). Sort things out, and on and on..blah blah blah....you know what I did? I used a red pen, on the letter, to correct everything he wrote, and sent it back to him..to this day, we laugh our asses off, he likes to tell that story - I wish I still had the letter. He said when he got it, he ripped it into shreds... we are 34 years tog...

Be well...

[barbtries]

13. that is funny.

i've had some letters where i was tempted. helped someone i think it was my ex brother in law, 7th grade papers. omigawd. and that was years ago.

the overuse of ellipses can get on my nerves but i never call it out. what is unfortunate to me is when i fixate on something to where i am losing the sense of what's being imparted. never want that to happen. but that's on me and not the writer.

[tblue37]

18. On my grammar and usage website I have an article titled

"Are Those Dots Just for Decoration?" It is about the proper use of ellipsis points.

[malaise]

20. Lovely story

[lame54]

17. Most of my spelling mistakes are typing errors...

Combined with hasty posting

More of us should proofread before posting

[ProudLib72]

19. Have and extra "do" on me for your title

[Sugar Smack]

21. Oh, dear!!

Good catch.

[barbtries]

22. lol

did you mean "an extra" or was that intentional?

[ProudLib72]

23. How dare you make fun of my fat fingers!

I'm lucky if I can pound out a single sentence without a mistake.

[barbtries]

24. you're not along

you see? i meant "alone"!