I’m not a very techy guy. In fact, sometimes it kind of ticks me off that new computer technology comes along and I have to get on board or be left behind. So I take a small bit of pleasure when it appears to me that it’s failed. Exhibit A, Spell Check.
This morning the front page screen on the Weather Channel has the following short paragraph.
Across the county it doesn’t feel or look like winter. These milder temperatures are causing winter based businesses to loose millions.
I have no doubt the writer meant ” country” and ” lose”, but, of course, ” county” and ” loose” are words too, spelled correctly, so Spell Check didn’t catch these errors.
It’s a nice way to start the day. Old Luddite Guy 1. Spell Check 0.
I have made my mistakes typing in the past. Sometimes it is autotext and/or autocorrect’s fault and many times it is just me typing in the wrong word. Autotext gets me where I am texting fast on my smartphone. Not very smart!
I even use the proofread three times rule, but the eyes and mind know the correct words and just fixes it while you read it all the while on the screen or paper they are wrong. That is the time when someone other than the author is best to proofread.
Yahoo! News is terrible when it comes to this kind of thing. Very rarely do I read an article they’ve posted that doesn’t have some sort of error relating to the improper use of words like “their” and “there,” etc..
The Wisconsin State Journal reads like it down-sized all the editors or off-shored the jobs.