Spell Check!

[Imhotep]

If you got it, please use it. Nothing turns me off faster from reading a story than seeing bad spelling or syntax. If you don't have it, ask another author who does. Please.

 

[TwiztedClown]

I remember someone saying that there is a spell checking program that you can download for internet explorer. I dont know what it is though...

 

[wicker]

I no your not talking about me! Im one of the best spelers out their!

 

[TJChurch]

1 of my pet peeves lately is I'll be reading 1 of my own threads (in the hopes of perhaps adding-onto it), & notice a spelling mistake. I edit it, & it goes into "Locked" mode, so there's no chance of me continuing, whether or not I wanted to.

Then, when it gets accepted again, the spelling mistake is again there, & sometimes, there's even more/worse mistakes.

 

[Zingiber]

It's good advice for editors when approving threads, as well.

I hand-pick spelling errors out of submissions, but often find out later that I've missed a few. I'll try copying in and out of a text editor with spell-check and see what I get.

-Z

 

[jakelyon]

iespell.com

I use one from a site called iespell.com. Quoting from their site...

ieSpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes on a webpage. It should come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of web-based text entry (e.g. web mails, forums, blogs, diaries). Even if your web application already includes spell checking functionality, you might still want to install this utility because it is definitely much faster than a server-side solution. Plus you get to store and use your personal word list across all your applications, instead of maintaining separate ones on each application.

I have used it for years and it has help me immensely. In fact I just used it to spell immensely correctly.

 

[wicker]

spell check helps me spell grate! It's won of the top programs out their. I don't no wear I'd be without it!

 

[TJChurch]

I'm a 3-time school spelling Champ, & write short stories in my "spare time". I still do all threads in Word to ck. them first.

 

[MilkFountain]

. . . Look Who's Talking!

If you got it, please use it. Nothing turns me off faster from reading a story than seeing bad spelling or syntax. If you don't have it, ask another author who does. Please.

Dear Wanna-be writer. . . . I'm afraid you need either a basic course in writing syntax or a lesson in humility, or both.

It can be either "Nothing turns me off faster THAN seeing bad spelling or syntax," or "Nothing turns me off faster WHILE reading a story than seeing bad . . ." but you cannot use "from" in any case. Its use is low English, and not to be used in written English, unless reporting informal speech by poorly educated people.

"If you'VE got it . . ." in present perfect is correct; otherwise, say "If you have it . . ." Again, this is low English.

(I suggest you read, study a bit and approach the craft of writing with a bit of humility before commenting on anything.)

 

[Imhotep]

Humbly noted.

 

[ltnsfr007]

NO Comprende

 

[MilkFountain]

. . . And respectfully quoted.

Humbly noted.

Dear Imhotep, congratulations! Your acceptance of criticism is the hallmark of a real writer, or writer-to-be. I've been a newspaper journalist for more than 40 years, an obsessive reader, the former editor of two newspapers, as well as a university, high school and business executive English professor. I still make mistakes, try to correct them as I write, catch them upon editing, and continue to find mistakes later—or worse, stumble upon awkward, eye-jarring sentences that deserved more time.

If nothing else, remember this. . . . That the immortal words of E.B. White in "THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE" (by William Strunk & E.B. White) are to writers what the Bible's "Golden Rule"—"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"—is to would-be true Christians:

"The reader (is) in serious trouble most of the time, a man floundering in a swamp, and it (is) the duty of anyone attempting to write English to drain this swamp quickly and get his man up on dry ground, or at least throw him a rope."

(By self-conscious count, I have edited the above 38 times.)

 

[TwiztedClown]

You do not have to be such a jerk about it...

 

[MilkFountain]

Poor young man . . .

You do not have to be such a jerk about it...

Young, aren't you? (And insecure but arrogant.) . . . Be careful what you say, it's always revealing. Don't be tiresome. You really don't have to comment on this, as undoubtedly your wounded ego will force you to do anyway (you'll lash out with another ill thought-out, sharp-tongued inanity, continuing to be a bore.) Grow up, shut up, and when you have something to say, make it clever for a change; if not, say somelthing positive, a contribution, instead of being just another little tear-downer).

 

[jakelyon]

You do not have to be such a jerk about it...

I agree with you TC. All anyone is really asking for is a reasonable level of spelling and understandable grammar. I don't think anyone's intent is to act like it has to be written perfectly. I quite agree with imhotep's original intent in starting the thread. Contributors need to be more careful with basic spelling, not perfect, just more careful.

 

[TwiztedClown]

Young, aren't you? (And insecure but arrogant.) . . . Be careful what you say, it's always revealing. Don't be tiresome. You really don't have to comment on this, as undoubtedly your wounded ego will force you to do anyway (you'll lash out with another ill thought-out, sharp-tongued inanity, continuing to be a bore.) Grow up, shut up, and when you have something to say, make it clever for a change; if not, say somelthing positive, a contribution, instead of being just another little tear-downer).

Youth is nothing but a number mostly, only an arrogant person would think that just because they are older than someone, they must be smarter or more mature. What you just said makes you a hypocrite. And you also mispelled something by the way.

 

[Torg]

And you also mispelled something by the way.

Irony.

 

[wicker]

Hey, milkfountain, ever heard of the semicolon?

 

[TJChurch]

Hey, milkfountain, ever heard of the semicolon?

Didn't Katie Couric show it on the Today Show?

 

[TwiztedClown]

Hey, milkfountain, ever heard of the semicolon?

To be honest, I never figured out where you're supposed to use semicolons..

 

[wicker]

a semilcolon is used in place of ", and" when joining to related independent clauses (sentences).

Example: I hate spinach; it makes me retch.

 

[MilkFountain]

Youth is nothing but a number mostly, only an arrogant person would think that just because they are older than someone, they must be smarter or more mature. What you just said makes you a hypocrite. And you also mispelled something by the way.

Although mistaken originally, I must apologize again—for having provoked you to prove the barbs in my original statement. Some lower class people, wherever they're from, of whatever age, are so predictable. By the way, you made 3 syntactical mistakes (including the one you "corrected") and two in punctuation.)

Do you know the difference between a "typo" and a spelling mistake?

Pobre infeliz. (Sorry, to reinforce your ignorance, you undoubtedly speak only one language.) Although English is not my native language, nor Spanish, I'm always amazed at the arrogance of native-speakers of any language.

To everyone's relief, I'm out of here, canceling my subscription to the thread; so, please continue sniping.

 

[TwiztedClown]

I will admit that I suck at syntax...I don't even remember learning about it in school. Which doesn't surprise me since my school sucked, and probably still does. But I do not really see some syntax errors in chyoo that bad...its more the spelling errors, and when someone forgets a period, quotation mark, or comma.

I find it funny though that you are saying that other people are sniping when you are calling people lower class, ignorant, and arrogant.

 

[Torg]

I will admit that I suck at syntax...I don't even remember learning about it in school. Which doesn't surprise me since my school sucked, and probably still does. But I do not really see some syntax errors in chyoo that bad...its more the spelling errors, and when someone forgets a period, quotation mark, or comma.

Or when they write everything in lower case, or worse yet, upper case.

 

[TwiztedClown]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that...