Spell-Check Won't Save You

If you use Twitter and you're interested in real-world insights from working editors, check out the hashtags #SpellCheckCannotSaveYou #SpellCheckWontSaveYou and #SpellCheckCantSaveYou. They contain lots of real-world examples of writing mistakes that your spell-checker is powerless to prevent.

For example, if you searched Twitter today for #SpellCheckWontSaveYou, one of the recent posts you would see is from a user who goes by Mededitor, a professional medical editor whom I count among my online friends: “It is a principal that is understood by the companies.”

An extra hashtag he threw in, “#AmEditing,” tells you where he found this example sentence.

“Principal” is an error. The writer meant “principle,” which is a fundamental law, doctrine or assumption. Spell check didn’t save the writer. Mededitor did.

And there are plenty more. Here's a column I wrote about some more choice examples.

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