Tucson Writers Workshop - Resources For Writers

Douglas Adams (who died May 11, 2001) is responsible for giving us a label for the concept.

Babble Fish: A fish that translates any spoken language into a language that the person possessing the fish can understand.

Example: To understand the Vogons, you'll have to have a babble fish in your ear.

But Wait!

babelfish or babel fish or BabelFish or Babel Fish ???

I'm soooooo confused...

At this point in the thread, we seem to have a consensus on certain issues.

1) Pet Peeves not withstanding, anyone who puts into writing the improperly spelled word or words (aside from obvious typos) is risking their ability to be respected by even the average reader, let alone a peer with professional writing credentials.

2) There is NO excuse for being sloppy. Spell Check is the 'tool-de-jour' and online dictionaries take only a few extra seconds to check if you have a site bookmarked and a fast connection to the internet...which adds some extra qualifiers, but excuses are still not acceptable.

3) Being a perfectionist is NOT a bad thing. Even when making apparently 'off-the-cuff' responses or remarks, proof reading shows that you *care* about keeping your readers on the same page with your line of reasoning. And hey, we ALL make mistakes...so a courteous method of acknowledging it is to post a correction.

4) Yes, proof reading is what separates the invertebrates from the phylums that have spines. Read, Edit, Repeat.

Oh yes, Preview.

PREVIEW...gotta love it!

Now this all pertains to what we do here online and affects our interactions with all of the other people who use so many of these wonderful forums to interact and learn from each other.

In "Meat Space" i.e. the real world...
it's about getting accepted by those who will pay for your work.

Attention to detail is the name of the game.
Mini details. Micro details. Nano details. Pico details?
Granular focus on the sub-details.
I think it's important enough to warrant attention.
Attention to the details...because someone is liable to question you. Or misunderstand you. Or glaze over and you've just lost their attention and/or their ability to focus on the important things that you were saying something about.

OR

You could always claim that you were being inventive, stylish, new-wave or artistic.

If you're lucky you might even get 1 person to appreciate the whimsy of that.

Here's a little something to add to the arrows in your quiver.

Spell Checker

Google's spell checking software automatically looks at your query and checks to see if you are using the most common version of a word's spelling. If it calculates that you're likely to generate more relevant search results with an alternative spelling, it will ask "Did you mean: (more common spelling)?". Clicking on the suggested spelling will launch a Google search for that term. Because Google's spell check is based on occurrences of all words on the Internet, it is able to suggest common spellings for proper nouns (names and places) that might not appear in a standard spell check program or dictionary.

/From: www.google.com/help/features.html

Commonly Confused Again

A) words that DO and DON't sound alike that still get confused:

Afflicting, Inflicting

Balmy, Barmy

Biannual, Biennual

Corps, Corpse, Core

Council, Counsel

Dependant, Dependent

Discreet, Discrete

Eatable, Edible

Eminent, Imminent

Good, Well

Rised, Raised

Misspelled Mistakes


So now I have another complaint: Commonly misspelled words.

I think there are certain reasons for the common misspelling of words...other than obvious typos.

And of course, depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on, you may also exclude or include many different alternative spellings for words like humerous and humorous.

Maybe it's just me, but I wince quite often as I read the words that are published online. After all, we live in the AGE OF SPELL CHECK.

Maybe I'm just too self indulgent about my pet peeves.

However, there are certain misspelled words that I find particularly painful. The painful words are ones that are commonly used, and therefore theoretically easy to remember and yet, commonly misspelt.

I don't intend to make this a big project, but I might add significant typos as I notice them.

Please feel free to add words that could be appended to this list.

Commonly encountered misspelling of the word is followed by the correct version:

commerical - commercial
definately - definitely
diffrent - different
existance - existence
mispell - misspell
occured - occurred
persistant - persistent
responsability - responsibility
sentance - sentence
speach - speech
tendancy - tendency
usefull - useful
wierd - weird


See, that's a short list...for now.

And the nervous tic will stop in a few minutes I hope.

Commonly Confused


As writers, we tend to be formal in the way that we articulate lanquage.

However, spoken language tends to be a lot less formal than the way we write.

When we try to translate spoken ideas into writing, it is often hard to remember correct grammar.

In addition, we hear incorrect grammar used so often that correct grammar is starting to sound wrong...or at least odd.

To make things even more interesting for us writers, common phrases are also likely to be written incorrectly.

I'm always noticing that words used in speech are shortened or slurred together.

This results in letters that aren't all pronounced, which makes it easy to inadvertently leave these letters out when writing.

Knowing which word to use or how to write a phrase correctly can make a big difference in your writing.

It's easier for readers to take a piece of writing more seriously when the grammar is correct.

So I've been working on a list of
A) words that DO sound alike,
B) words that DON'T sound alike but confuse many people anyway
C) problem phrases that bug me enough to want to vent about them here...where I'm sure to get some sympathy/empathy responses from all of you.

Here's the list:
(in the order of the ones that bug me the most to least)

A)
Than, Then

There, Their, They're

To, Too, Two

Your, You're


B)
Who, Which, That

Lie, Lay

Set, Sit


C)
Supposed to as opposed to: Suppose to
(without the D is incorrect)

Toward
(there is no s at the end)

Anyway
(also has no s at the end)

For all intents and purposes
(Not intensive purposes)

I'm sure I'll think of more...
but let's see what else you'll come up with!

I've got a great book on the desk in front of me:
"Eats, Shoots & Leaves" - by Lynne Truss

the title is based on the following joke:

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich,
eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in
the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda
makes towards the exit. The panda produces a
badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it
over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure
enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal,
native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Online Guide to Grammer and Writing
www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/