Friday, June 20, 2008

The Homonym, She is my Nemesis

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, I am sure you have noticed a spelling or usage error here and there. I totally need an editor. If anyone would like to volunteer for the job I’m taking applications, though the pay is not great.

The thing is, my brain works faster than my fingers, so when I type a sentence, in my mind, I’m already on to the next thought. This confuses the fingers.

Also, I don’t see my mistakes. There is something wrong with my brain in this way. I swear it sees what is knows is supposed to be there. I will read a sentence (especially one I wrote) and not see any glaring errors. Once someone points it out to me, I see it. It is not that I didn’t know that say, flower and flour cannot be used interchangeably, it is that my brain sees the one it knows is supposed to be there, until someone points it out.

Often I’ll go back and read my posts a day later and see several errors that were simply not there the day before. I correct them, and cover my face in embarrassment, virtually of course.

So if you are one of the readers who reads my blog through some sort of feed, I can only say I’m sorry. What I publish the first time is almost without fail, going to contain some errors. I fix them as I go along, so if you actually come to my blog you’ll find some of the errors have been fixed. I do realize that some prefer to do their editing before they publish the post. Pshaw! What fun is that?

I can only hope and pray none of my high school English teachers happen upon my blog.

Just so you know I’m not a total moron. I am aware of the following.

The following pairs of words cannot be used interchangeably, the are what the academic world likes to call, homonyms. (except the last two, those are not homonyms. I don't know what they are, but that double letter, add ed thing confuses the heck out of me.)

Flower - a colored, sometimes scented, part of a plant that contains its reproductive organs. It consists of a leafy shoot with modified leaves, petals, and sepals surrounding male or female organs, stamens, and pistils.

Flour - a powder made by grinding the edible parts of cereal grains. Use: bread, cakes, pastry, sauce thickener.

Whipped - transitive and intransitive verb to strike somebody or something very hard, sharply, or repeatedly.

Wiped - transitive and intransitive verb to remove something such as dirt with long light rubbing strokes, usually with a soft material, or be removed in this way.


Now that we’ve covered that, you are free to move about the Internet.

Tricia

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL! Don't fret about it. I firmly believe that blogs are pretty much journals, and was taught in school that journals are just an avenue to jot down your thoughts WITHOUT punctuation or correction.

If someone disagrees they can feel free to click the little red X and leave my blog (because there are PLENTY of errors!)

Michelle said...

I havent noticeed aany erorrs on ur blog. Evrithang luuks grate too me! LOL

I am SURE we all have errors on our blogs. And if we don't, then WE SHOULD! It feels free to not be so concerned about things like that when I am blogging my thoughts. Don't sweat it!

Oh, by the way, I love your wit! You have made me laugh so many times when I needed it. THANKS!

Happy Mommy said...

Without spell check I wouldn't be allowed to home school my children... Really sometimes it's that bad!
I am always changing things on my blog after I have already posted. So I will totally read your blog regardless of error, and I don't notice anyway!

Delete said...

I have absolutely the same problem. I just never have the time to edit my own posts. I am always mortified when I see my errors and I think how can I be responsible for teaching my kids when I can't even spell basic words correctly.

Here's to moms with lots of thoughts and not enough time to get the written down -

Jenna