Comments on: Writing without typos is totally outdated

By: Loretta - Enjoy Leading

Loretta - Enjoy Leading — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:45:07 +0000

This post (and the rampant commenting) is so interesting – because it raises a far deeper issue than spelling!

Everyone is ready to support substance over form. If our conversations are about what really matters – then spelling is much less important.

Love your provocative statements and encouragement to curiosity and questions Penelope.

Here are another few:
What really matters? – Peter Block
What is the real challenge here? – Michael Bungay Stanier

By: Michael Leung

Michael Leung — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:35:00 +0000

I am ok about that. That is very hard for the bloggers like us. English is our second language. That is very hard to pick up the grammar and typo for us.

By: coolio

coolio — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:38:00 +0000

it's called proof reading

By: coolio

coolio — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:37:00 +0000

Amen Paula!

By: To typo or not to typo « electricbluegaloo

To typo or not to typo « electricbluegaloo — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:55:56 +0000

[...] absolutely love the post I read this week about typos, and it is so relevant as I have been asking myself about that very same thing since I began this [...]

By: Nlaeditor

Nlaeditor — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:48:00 +0000

I rather dislike the premise behind this blog entry, which is that quality of form and content are somehow mutually exclusive. If high-volume babbling prevents you from checking your work for basic errors, then you need to slow down a bit and ensure that your work is passably clean.

Self-publishing a blog on the web does allow for greater latitude and I, for one, do not expect a general blog to be flawless in grammar and punctuation. There is a small amount of grace I'll extend to a writer. It is understood that this is a more fast-paced, conversational medium, so the occasional miss or flub is easily forgiven.

But the errors in question should be just that: occasional – not rife. If you test the reader's patience overmuch, you'll soon have one fewer reader. Keep it up, you'll lose them in droves. Because the fact is, there are a great many blogs that are not riddled with basic mistakes. As a reader, I will gravitate to quality writing, and quality writing is generally not seriously flawed in structure and form. Good writers do manage to use the language well and produce clean, readable copy.

By: Tessa

Tessa — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:17:00 +0000

Why should a reader waste his or her time slogging through something that's poorly written in the hope that it's wildly rich in ideas? If those ideas are as exciting and thought provoking as you believe, they deserve a forum that's grammatically correct and attractive to the reader. Your five points are an effort to excuse sloppiness.

By: http://katiehozan.blogspot.com

http://katiehozan.blogspot.com — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:14:00 +0000

This is a controversial topic. I agree with what Paula is saying, if you put out content with spelling errors then I may question your legitimacy. For example, if you read a scholarly article and they spell a word wrong, everyone questions that. However, I agree with the article. Spelling errors happen to everyone – we're human! I make them, you make them, everyone does! When they do happen, most times people can figure out what you meant to say. If you are commenting on a blog, you shouldn't be motivated to comment due to the spelling error, you should be motivated based on the content.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:12:00 +0000

No writer in their right mind who wanted to be taken seriously would ever dream of using spellchecker in the first place.

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:43:00 +0000

I understand that errors happen, but I still appreciate people who take the time and effort to put forward good work — including checking for errors. Good spelling and grammar indicate a blog I'll likely want to read; frequent errors resemble whiny kids' Facebook status complaints about homework.