My spell check has been drinking again. It just told me \u201cd\u00e9j\u00e0 vu\u201d should be \u201cdeejay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone who uses Word software probably has some form of spell check. Mine\u2014I call him \u201cSC\u201d\u2014also makes occasionally helpful (but often just surreal) suggestions about grammar and punctuation. To be fair, SC sometimes saves me from my own carelessness. But all in all, I think I\u2019d rather get dating tips from a praying mantis.<\/p>\n
For less-experienced writers, spell check is a mushroom in the woods: be careful what you swallow. I once typed \u201cpublic enemies\u201d and SC wanted \u201cenemy\u2019s.\u201d Nouns ending in y<\/em> are tricky enough without bogus advice from a clueless tool. It pains me to think of all the insecure people who follow blindly.<\/p>\n SC is no panacea to grammar-challenged Americans. He changed \u201chow is it possible\u201d to \u201chow it possible is,\u201d and \u201call of the above\u201d became \u201cthe entire above.\u201d<\/p>\n The word snarky<\/em>, referring to a snide attitude, has been in popular usage for a long time. But no one told SC, who thinks my hand slipped while I was trying to type \u201csnaky\u201d or \u201csnarly.\u201d Come to think of it, those two words pretty much sum up snarky<\/em>. But that\u2019s beside the point.<\/p>\n Another familiar term is \u201cA-lister\u201d: someone who\u2019s show-business royalty. SC doesn\u2019t get out much, so he thinks I must mean \u201clifter\u201d or \u201cluster\u201d or \u201cblister\u201d\u2014or even \u201cleister,\u201d which is a three-pronged fishing spear. That\u2019s no way to describe Angelina Jolie!<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just trendy words that SC botches. The French word chez<\/em>, referring to home or headquarters, has been prevalent in English usage since the early 18th century. So why does SC think I mean either a revolutionary (\u201cChe\u201d), a singer (\u201cCher\u201d) or some bloke named \u201cChet\u201d?<\/p>\n For several decades, Luddite<\/em> has been a handy word for someone who rejects or is confounded by modern technology: \u201cI\u2019m such a Luddite I can\u2019t program my DVR.\u201d You\u2019d think SC could do better than \u201clandsite\u201d or \u201caudited.\u201d<\/p>\n Clearly, at this point, spell check is too erratic. The irony is that it\u2019s least valuable to those who need it most.<\/p>\n (This tip was contributed by veteran writer and copy editor Tom Stern.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My spell check has been drinking again. It just told me \u201cd\u00e9j\u00e0 vu\u201d should be \u201cdeejay.\u201d Everyone who uses Word software probably has some form of spell check. Mine\u2014I call him \u201cSC\u201d\u2014also makes occasionally helpful (but often just surreal) suggestions about grammar and punctuation. To be fair, SC sometimes saves me from my own carelessness. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,25,39,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions","category-effective-writing","category-humor","category-proofreading","category-spelling"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}