Like you, I shake my head at the standard of written material we find all around us.
There are pitiful, ridiculous mistakes in online adverts, or in the text that scrolls across your TV during the news (a particular vexation to me). And yes, I must admit, sometimes horrible errors on the pages of newspapers.
I think I’ve worked out why this happens. It is because of mobile phone messaging.
There is an inherent flaw in the concept of instant messaging. The clue is in the “instant” part of the name. That’s what people do, they send instantly.
My daughter complains I always blame young people. My response is that the young make a lot of written mistakes. The Latin term is veritas: the defence of “truth”.
However, back to instant messaging. Watch a young person send a WhatsApp or whatever. They type like the Dickens (great old phrase) even if typing looks impossible with the inch-long, multi-coloured claws that have replaced fingernails.
When they finish, they instantly press “send”.
They don’t check, don’t go back to re-word or remedy a slip of the claw, don’t seem to care at all what was in the message. Off it flies into the great digital nowhere.
This “instant” mentality spills over into things that actually matter. They type, they press send. Accuracy has been sacrificed on the high altar of speed.
This is an alien concept to me. In my young days in a newspaper caseroom, we were forced, on pain of death or worse, to check, check again. Re-check and get someone else to check.
No excuse for mistakes, and I mean zero, was tolerated. A herd of wildebeest could stampede past my elbow; an atomic bomb explode outside; Sophia Loren could flutter her luscious long lashes at me (unlikeliest of the three scenarios) and I’d still be expected to notice rhododendron or fuchsia spelled incorrectly on the gardening page.
I think competent spelling is a reasonable thing to expect of any worker.
A friend told me she emailed a local firm to point out a foolish error in an online advert (this is the type of thing I routinely do). She received no reply, though the spelling was corrected quickly.
That’s a self-defeating approach. When someone points out a mistake, thank them. Encourage them to please do so in future if they see a mistake again. They’ve done free work for you.
It might be a little embarrassing, but it is far better for a mistake to be identified by one person than have ten thousand read it and think you a fool and your firm a sloppy operation.
Word of the week
Putative (adjective)
What is commonly accepted or supposed, but not based on actual proof. EG: “If your firm produces material which is spelled incorrectly, my putative assumption is that your product is poor, your staff incompetent, and I don’t want to deal with you.”
Read the latest Oh my word! every Saturday in The Courier. Contact me at sfinan@dctmedia.co.uk
