and still, I stink at grammar and spelling. Thank the Lord for spelling & grammar check, oh and my $200 dollar dictionary (ask Chuck, he loves to tell that story.) However, there are times when spelling & grammar checks aren't available, like on facebook. There are also times when spelling and grammar check, can't catch typos. Read on to find out one that happened to me.
Recently I reconnected with an old roommate from Oklahoma Christian College, now OCU. We exchanged several e-mails and my second one to her stated this "I'm doing great. I live in NJ with my husband of 2 years. We have four boys ages 13, 11, 9, 7. Where are you these days? I found you at the OCU site." She sent back a simple response, and that was it.
One day I intended to delete the e-mails in my facebook inbox, I began rereading my e-mails to see if I needed to transfer any info. into my address book. Guess what I found? A typo in the above e-mail. A HUGE typo! No, not a simple 'a', 'or' or 'and' out of place, not an extra 'the' like "In the the morning..." Rather it was a MAJOR TYPO. Right there in the second sentence I said "I live in NJ with my husband of 2 years." If I hadn't caught it, my old friend (let me restate that, she's not old.) My friend from college (that's better) might have believed, forever, that Luke was 2 when Chuck and I finally tied to knot! STOP laughing!! Stop, you detail oriented people who never make typos.
When I reread my e-mail to her, I almost died. I couldn't get an e-mail to her, correcting my typo, off my fingers fast enough. Thankfully she thought it was funny. All the while I was mortified. She responded with "LOL, I didn't worry about the details. I just know sometimes things happen." Apparently time hasn't changed her external beauty or internal. Thanks for your grace Julie.
When I write I'm concerned about the creative aspect. The details of spelling and grammar bog me down. I spend hours laboring over those details when I'm left to edit my own writing. For goodness sake a simple blog post can take me an hour if I don't watch myself. What time is it? What? I've been doing this for an hour and a half? Your kidding right?
It's a good thing I'm not responsible for legal documents or money. Can you imagine the mess I'd create? I might start another war or make a huge error in someone's account due to typos!
January 7, 2009
I write a lot...
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3 comments:
Hey girl,
Don't sweat the spelling and grammar. Madeliene L'Engle gave a workshop many years ago in NYC. I attended, and the first words out of her mouth were, "When being creative, just write, worry about all of the other stuff when you're done." It's a very freeing experience - when you do all of the editing at the end.
I love you and your heart for the Lord.
that $400 dictionary has really come in handy over the years. I have actually used it from time to time. and I'm not even going to comment about the spelling and grammer thing(because I am the worst)
Yes...I'm weeks behind on reading everyone's blogs...but I HAVE to comment here! I caught the "2" typo...what a hoot! Us creative types do not, I repeat, do not have enough room in our brains for all of our fantastic ideas, and tedious details like how words are spelled too! Before the kids were born, I worked in a VERY large room with 40 other architects and designers. This was back in the dark ages, before the revolution of computers and e-mail, we had to write "transmittals" by hand. After about a year of exasperation, I finally went out and bought a paperback Webster's dictionary. I suddenly became the most popular person on my end of the office! When I left for maternity leave (which is still going on 20 years later) they wanted me to leave my dictionary behind! I didn't...good thing, because I still can't spell, the dictionary has been in the kitchen of both homes we have lived in, and it's falling apart...but I still use it.
And hey Chuck...so what if the dictionary was $200 or $400...you're wife is worth every penny...and you know it!
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