One of my unsung skills, to my mind, has always been my ability to spell English words. So I knew I was slipping this morning when I tried to use coyote, and mediocre in a sentence. (Actually it was two different sentences.)
I usually lose my WordPress post-in-progress when I try to access my dictionary link, so I keep a variety of old-fashioned paper dictionaries handy. So when I had difficulty with spell-check accepting my version of the two common words , and my paper Merriam-Webster wasn’t cooperating either, I knew I was in trouble.
When I find errors in old posts I always go back and edit out any errors. Usually these mistakes are typos, or technical glitches, occasional auto-fill spellings, but there are also the inevitable brain-errors which have official names that I learned 80-odd years ago in elementary school but have not worried about since. I always took to spelling and grammar details as a part of my affinity for writing, I guess.
Now, the automatic red underlining of iffy punctuation and such….that’s another thing. Like right here, the writing police don’t like my use of ellipses (I love ellipses) and my use of keyboard characters to make smiley faces and the like.
Call me an old-fashion writing hack if you want to, but I am of the old school that considered a well-done typed assignment paper or other submission to be part of the presentation. I still like to have certain spacing between sentences for purely esthetic reasons. I dislike the new grammar rules that eliminate double spacing at the end of the sentence, running the sentences together with just one space. I don’t appreciate the snarky comments like “…one space is better than two at the end of a sentence,” and “it is better not to have multiple characters at the end of a paragraph.”
Anyway, that’s my two-cents, and I’m sticking to it. haha so there…!:-)
SOMETIMES 
That’s too bad that your spelling is slipping. I was only fair at spelling, so my slippage looks worse than yours. I, too, like perfect posts. *sigh* On the bright side, I hope other readers read like I do, skipping over the typos or correcting them in my head. I am much more likely to remember boring sentences than spelling errors.
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I’m not too bad of a spelling policeman, but typos jump out at me when I’m reading anything. And apostrophes drive me crazy…
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It is easier to be oblivious.
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Yes it is. Our editor at the newspaper used to circle typos and errors in red pencil. I still have a note he sent me when I spelled “recieve” wrong…let me say the little rhyme: I before E except after C.” ha…I tried to wing it there, and I think I got it wrong. should be “receive.”
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You still remember the rhyme!! You get points for that.
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There are all sorts of rhymes and rules and jingles taking up space in my brain. 🙂
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I’ve never been great at spelling and somehow it gets much worse when I type! So I’m grateful for spell checks, as I’m fussy about avoiding errors in my blog. I write everything in Word first and copy and paste it into WP once I’m happy with. But like you I find many of the grammar suggestions unhelpful and interfering 😉 However I have dropped the double-spacing of sentences in recent years as it was house style policy to always single space at a company for which I used to do work regularly. Now I find I’m happier without it 🙂
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I tend to write as a speak, and I like a conversational style in blogging, and even casual-slangy in some chats. Now when I was writing academic papers I always toed the line, but in grading students’ work I was inclined to give them a break…entry level college level students were asked to be factually correct in details. I’m a historian, and encountered all types of student writing.
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You’re not the only one, Pat. My brain seems to need a full 7 – 8 hours of good sleep to function properly. The older I get the worse my sleep becomes. Are you sleeping well?
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Not really. I get up multiple times during the night, usually one of the cats has a turn at escorting me. A glass of red wine in the evening helps I think.
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I do have a wee glass of red once in a while, but not very often. Might give it a go.
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Bob and I had “wine time” lots of nights about 9 p.m. He always ordered a bottle when we went out for dinner. I like wines that aren’t either sweet or sharp, but then it depends on what foods go with it. I like corn chips and the like. Scott doesn’t like wine, so it isn’t fun like it used to be when Bob was around. (He has been gone for 22 years! Imagine that.! I miss him every day.
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