Re: style

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 13:47 8/25/99 -0500, poj wrote:
> "Spagna Jr., George" wrote:
>
> > ... e-mail
> > software is not uniform. ... some folks cannot back
> > up to edit messages.
>
> ... Does anyone use
> e-mail software that doesn't allow him to pause and check
> doubtful spelling and
> punctuation before pressing the Send button?...

> But I feel that teachers, above all others, should set good
> examples to peers as
> well as students. Would they include such errors in messages to their
department
> chairman or dean? ... I think it extends courtesy to the readers,
> showing them that the writer
> values their opinion no less than he values the dean's.
>
> poj
> Collin County College

It is said among newsgroup participants, that the first debater to draw
attention to faulty spelling loses.
 I am relatively blind to my own spelling errors, and moreover do not
use a checker but I have been exposed to a culture where much poor
spelling marks one as declasse. If for no other reason, this makes me
receptive to poj's message.

   And I offer this support: I don't believe there is a single example
 of an emailing utility that prevents retracing and rereading to correct
 errors.  That is the fundamental mission of such software.
(In windows oriented software, the mouse is the means of pointing to
 faulty text, if the up/down arrow does not move the active line.)

    However, I can find configurations where a keyboard/terminal type
 prevents the exercise of some character or sequence needed to reread and
correct in a particular reader.

 I also try to remember that there are numerous European languages
that "spell like they speak" and to a native speaker of such a language,
 looking for written typos in (idiosyncratic) English is very much an
up hill task. Still, an awareness of the politics of spelling should be a
motivation for using spell checkers, one whispers up the sleeve.


brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK