It makes me positively ill, to the point where it’s hard to swallow and my heart sinks deeply into my stomach. I have done it again, and I thought I had been doing quite well recently. Yet in just the span of two weeks, I have had three spelling errors.
Two of which, my boss had called me out on. One because she spotted it and the other, the client complained. As for the third, it was for a word that could be spelt two ways correctly, but it is preferred for me to spell it in the other way of which I had written it. So for that one, I am not too concerned.
- The offending word: launched
- My misspell: launhed
- What’s wrong: I missed the ‘C’
I know how to spell the word, even without Grammarly mocking me at each and every turn. Before hitting publish I always speed read through my copy, keeping a keen eye out for those lifesaving red underlines. Since I speed-read my way through, and I know what I am saying, my brain fills in the blanks. So I don’t notice the times that the spell-check I rely on has failed for one reason or another.
For months, I had no spelling errors or issues on the published work posts so maybe, I grew too reliant and somewhat lazy. I admit I didn’t check the post as thoroughly as I should have done, yet at the same time, I wonder if this was a misspell or a mistype. Either way, it’s still wrong.
The previous word that offended me was sniffles. In a single place, I had typed it up as sniffels, here, obviously, my one finger was faster than the other. Since it was literally the only sniffle in that entire piece that I had misspelt. Today’s word I missed out on the ‘C’ which makes me wonder, did I press the key but the computer had simply not registered it. Which does occasionally happen.
This, in turn, brings me to question a couple of things. Am I in too much of a rush to move onto the next task that I am rush typing and not paying enough attention? Is my dyslexia tripping me up? Or have I become too lazy to proofread properly?
The fact that I know my spelling is not the greatest is why I have such dread when something like this happens. If it’s my own stuff I feel somewhat sheepish, however, when it comes to a spelling mistake at work, it feels like a firable offence. Especially when it happens a few times in succession and I know that my boss has commented on it before.
I just can’t shake the hollow stomach and sunken heart feeling. Whenever something is published and comes back with an error, I can feel myself go pale. Even as I sit here hours after the offending word has been corrected, I just can’t shake the feeling that I won’t ever get it right. I am restraining myself from going through all of my recent past posts to hunt down any possible errors.
Overall it leaves me feeling inadequate.
So here I am, writing a lengthy piece, on a mental state I don’t really wish to face, rather than exercising and then doing the work I brought home since I have tomorrow off for Rush and GeekFest.
The worst part is, I know this will happen again. A lapse in concentration and I will be back here trying to shake the feeling once again. It’s a constant battle with myself and I know it is impossible to pay 100% attention all the time but oh how I wish I could.
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