Speeling, I mean "Spelling" equals professionalism
By Jon Fernquest |
"A bowl of 'conflex' anyone?"
Those are "cornflakes" not "conflex" in the photo to the right, in case you were wondering.
Steve Graham, weekly columnist in the Bangkok Post's Learning Post section published every Tuesday, writes on spelling and professionalism in this week's column.
The problem is a familiar one:
"I am sure that many readers have seen signs in English with spelling mistakes and wondered why someone had not proofread the work before it was published or displayed in a prominent place. I have always thought that incorrect spelling reflected badly on the company or organization concerned."
School is the best place to acquire habits of correct spelling but it's never too late to begin. You can even do a quick rough check for correct spelling as you type in Word:
"This situation [incorrect spelling] seems far worse when it appears at educational establishments, since they should pay more attention to spelling details. And I am not referring just to Thai words such as Lardprao, but normal everyday English words that can be spellchecked on a computer and proofed by Thais and foreigners alike."
Sometimes you need help to spot errors. That's what editors, proofreaders, and peer review are for.
Many seasoned writers can't detect errors in their own writing unless they print out a hard copy of their writing to read:
"When people write, they tend to get word blind and do not see their own mistakes. There is no shame in asking someone to proofread what you have written, so errors can be prevented. Any mistakes can be used as a lesson to prevent the same error from happening again."
Correct spelling can mean money gained or money lost when the reputation of a business either benefits or sooffers [suffers, I made that mistake to test you] from spelling in business communications:
"Many businesses rely on their image and reputation to attract new customers and keep old ones. Incorrect spelling reflects badly on any organization.Some customers would consider the lack of attention to detail and spelling as unprofessional, which could cause them to lose confidence in a company or look elsewhere for business.
A spoken error can easily be forgiven, but a written mistake is more serious since it can stay in place for a long time as a reminder.
Asking for help is not a sign of weakness and shouldn't involve anyone loosing status [whoops, spelling mistake here, should be "losing"]. However, it is important for all businesses and educational establishments to strive for perfection."
Finally, perfect spelling is not always the most important problem in writing.
In emails and casual communications prefect spelling is rarely that important. Reading your writing once after writing it, is usually enough to spot most errors that interfere with communication.
Writing that can't be understood at all whether the spelling is correct or incorrect is a problem that has to be solved before spelling.
Exchanging writing with a friend to see if it is readable is the quickest way to overcome this problem.
In university blogs I have even seen professors of English make spelling mistakes occasionally.
Sometimes there is a tradeoff between precision and just getting the job done in a timely fashion.
Also as one Thai professor noted in a language conference I once attended, trying too hard to avoid errors can often lead to no communication at all, which is the very purpose of language to begin with.
[Note: Steve Graham is an English language teacher at the Language Center, Udon Thani Rajabhat University in northeast Thailand. If there are any comments or areas for debate that you would like to discuss, you may contact Steve at: shedchelsea@hotmail.co.uk.]
(Source: Bangkok Post, Learning Post, 29-01-08, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
professionalism - displaying skill and high standards in a job
cornflakes - a breakfast cereal popular in the United States (See Wikipedia)
familiar - know and understand well, because you have seen before
spelling mistakes - using the wrong letters when you spell a word
proofread - reading a copy of a text to find and correct any errors (See Wikipedia on proofreading)
prominent - very noticeable and important
a prominent place - an important place where everyone can see it
X reflects badly on Y - X causes people to have a bad opinion about Y
a habit - something that you do regularly and often without thinking about it
acquire habits - when the way a person acts gradually becomes a habit
establishments - (formal) an organisation or business occupying a place
educational establishments - schools
spellchecked - a text was checked for spelling errors using computer software like Word
spot errors - find errors
edit (verb) - correct and adapt writing so that it is suitable for publication
editors - the people in a newspaper or magazine responsible for what is published in different parts of the publication (See Wikipedia on editing)
proofreaders - people whose job is to proofread and correct texts
peer review - having the students you study with or the colleagues you work with or who are in your field of expertise check your work, "process of subjecting an author's scholarly work, research or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field. It is used primarily by editors to select and to screen submitted manuscripts, and by funding agencies to decide the awarding of grants" (See Wikipedia on peer review)
seasoned - a person with a lot of experience
a hard copy of Y - a printed copy of document Y rather than a copy only viewable on the computer screen
shame - the uncomfortable feeling you get when you have done something silly and embarrassing (like mis-spell "embarrass" as "embarass," for example)
reputation - to be known or remembered for something, to be thought of as good or bad (See glossary)
attention to detail - when a person checks the details of something to make sure there are no mistakes (check a motocycle after repairing it, for instance)
lack of attention to detail - does not look at details to make sure that they are correct
have confidence in X - to feel you know how a thing X works or how a person X will behave (trust person X)
lose confidence in - no longer feel that you know how it works or that you can trust a person
status - a person's position within society
casual - relaxed and not overly serious and concerned about what's happening
interfere with X - preventing X or damaging X
a blog, a web log - a website that comments on the news or a specialized subject, or functions as a personal online diary (See Wikipedia on blogs)
a tradeoff between X and Y - losing some X to gain some Y, a fundamental concept of economics that studies scarcity (See Wikipedia on trade-off)
precision - do something exactly as it should be done
timely - done on time, not too late (for example, the problem was corrected in a timely fashion so it did not blow up into an even bigger problem)
