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Spelling? Check! Grammar… Hunter Teases Us

Our man Hunter must be pulling our leg. An eager reader notes that MDL's Tuesday editorial on the recent spelling bee and the state of the mother tongue includes this passage (as usual, I quote verbatim):

We don't think using abbreviations is the end of the civilized world. But we do believe correct spelling is still a difference-maker in real life. Young people don't know that misspelling words in a cover letter or job application will probably get it tossed the the trash. Or that teachers or professors at higher levels of education won't stand for misspellings [Jon Hunter, "Does Spelling Still Matter When We Intentionally Misspell," Madison Daily Leader, 2011.03.01].

I cast no stone, in part because of my own mistakes (I just left a comment referring to opne government, probably some kind of Swedish council), but also because I suspect Jon is just testing his own hypothesis. He wanted to see how long it would take all of us tweeting, texting philistines to even notice his syntactical error. Jon, you clever devil.

4 Comments

  1. Jana 2011.03.03

    Not sure what the the you are talking about.

  2. Jana 2011.03.03

    Should add that I will certainly not be the one to cast the first stone.

    I admire journalists and editors for putting themselves on the line everyday with the chance to make thousands of errors in full public display. For that fact alone, most should be paid more than they are currently making and their unpaid furloughs transferred to those that choose to stay ignorant of the news.

  3. Shelly 2011.03.04

    " . . . tossed the the trash . . . "
    That was invisible to me until the third read through.

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