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Subject:Re: general topic of spelling From:"Phillip St. James" <saint0 -at- verizon -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 15 Jun 2005 17:12:42 -0700
Great question, James, but I wonder whether you referring to human generated
typos or spell checker mistakes, or both.
I find mis-used hyphenation to be a prevalent problem. :-)
We seem to have lost articles and the "ly" suffix for adverbs (e.g., Apple's
Think Different campaign).
Another part of spelling errors is related to the evolution and
enculturation of spoken US English by hip, slang, patois, "media speak", and
newcomers from many other places. That is, because successfully
communicating is more important than complying with rigor or tradition, we
are losing "proper" or traditional constructions in favor of various short
cuts and other creative misusages (is a hyphen appropriate in misusages for
reading purposes?).
Because language doesn't belong solely to those who write it, it's a
bewildering tech pubs task at times to write both to be quickly and broadly
understood in today's diverse environment and to be respected by language
purists. When I think of marketing communication, I sometimes wonder where
these folks stand in terms of language rigor and rules...
I look forward to seeing what comes up on this thread... Yes, I will try to
construct sentences and ideas that are cogent, concise, and immediately
understandable.
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