Spell-Check Is Your Friend (Mostly)

The distinguished-locking genital man steeped namely from the hoarse drown carriage.*

What’s wrong with this sentence? The spelling. Oh yes, I ran spell-check. In fact, about half of those words were chosen using spell-check. They’re all real, honest-to-goodness, correctly spelled words; unfortunately they make no sense when you put them all together. Unless you’re in the business of creating word puzzles or writing surrealism, this is not the kind of sentence you want on your page.

Spell-check is a great tool. I use it every day. Spell-check is handy, but it is not a mind reader. It won’t always magically produce the word you are looking for, and it won’t point out words that are spelled correctly but used incorrectly. Relying too much on spell-check leads down the dark path of “genital men,” “hoarse drown carriages,” and even “my voice is little horse.”

Your most important task as a writer is to say what you mean. Simple, right? Well, yes, provided you choose the right words. Spell-check can help you do that, along with a dictionary and your very own brain. When spell-check highlights a misspelled word and gives you options of real words to choose from, resist the temptation to pick the first one and move on. That’s exactly how I came up with “genital man.” Unless you’re absolutely certain the first word is the right word, stop and think about it, say the word out loud, check its definition in the dictionary. And never, ever use spell-check as a substitute for proofreading. Never.

Taking the time to choose the right words—using all the tools available to you—will improve your writing and keep your readers reading, guaranteed.

(* I meant to say, The distinguished-looking gentleman stepped nimbly from the horse-drawn carriage.)