On your marks

Sam Leader With delightful regularity, we receive feedback from the solo community offering some form of praise for the work we do here at Flying Solo. Naturally enough, we love it! And long may it continue. Occasionally, though, we'll receive a comment where the karma isn't so good.

Recently I was the target of a swipe from a guy who was absolutely incandescent with rage due to a typo on our website.

As the editor of Flying Solo's 300 plus articles, the odd mistake is inevitable. Normally these are picked up by a friendly reader who points out the broken hyperlink or the spelling/grammar error in question. Mistakes are fixed up pronto.

But this guy was far from friendly and left me in no uncertain terms that I had not only offended his sensibilities, I had actually ruined his day.

It reminded me that…I used to be the same! I would get so upset by any deviation from perfection. I devoured books like Lynne Truss' grammar bible, Eats, Shoots and Leaves and thought nothing of sending (actually pretty offensive) emails to sites like the ABC when they made an error. I secretly loved the sense of superiority it gave me.

At some point, though, something changed. Reason replaced righteousness and I stopped reacting in the same way.

That's not to say I don't care about language. My love for words is part of who I am and I still enjoy arguments about the possessive apostrophe as much as the next wordsmith.

But what I've let go of is that vitriolic attitude towards language. I now have zero empathy with those who believe being right is all that matters. We all know the types, those who think anyone who struggles with spelling must be a moron, and that people who write SMS messages like “cu 2nite” ought to be publicly flogged.

I wonder what is it about language that can turn normal, rational people into such grouches. It seems to me in some cases, such as with our angry reader, being right came at the expense of fairness, perspective and manners.

So my question for you is…am I right to have let it go? Or is it a travesty that someone in my position, with my responsibility, has such a laissez-faire attitude?

Give it to me via a comment.

Until next week.

Love your work,

Sam Leader is a director of Flying Solo and its editor. She is the co-author of Flying Solo - How to go it alone in business.

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None of us is perfect. And there's a phrase for those who try to make other people into something they're not - control freaks. Better to happily admit imperfection in ourselves and others than to spend your life raging against things you can't change Jackie Blackledge from WILLOUGHBY
While we should all do our best to use correct spelling and grammar , it not worth getting too distraught about it (world hunger is though). Language is constantly evolving and changing - if it wasn't we would still using the basic 'grunts' and 'gronks' of our prehistoric ancestors. (or at least the movies would have us beleive this was communcation in caveman days)
As a casual school teacher, I'm always joking with kids about how popular 'Me-an' is as it seems every student knows him/her and did something with him'her on the weekend. Of course I'm talking about the phrase I find quite grating 'On the weekend Me- an (note the dropped 'd' ) Joshua/Teigan/Mary-Jane/Will etc played ....... Alison from Bateau Bay
Hmmm, yes I have on one occasion a while back chipped you for a typo but if my memory serves me rightly, it was a stand-out one. But of course no-one is perfect especially in English which is a continuously-evolving language. When we take archaic English spelling, meld that with weird Americanisms (do you, like me, hate the hillbilly expression "critter" that Aussies now use instead of creature?) and then add in all the strange abbreviations we've learnt ever since the days of telegrams through the telex era, then fax, email and SMS, no wonder people have a hard time of getting English perfect, whatever that perfection might be.
Anyway, have a look at what we now see as strange spelling in say the early Australian settlers' writings. They wrote phonetically, or just had a punt at it. And yes, we can understand their works.
My business depends on my ability to read and understand export contracts, devise the correct wording for payment agreements, correctly create export documents etc, but even so, there will occasionally be the odd "oops" creep in. And that's despite all my best efforts. Like you, I don't have a paid proofreader looking at my items before they hit the big wide world. Like you, my proofreaders are the intended audience. So while you and I strive to do our absolute best, we are thankfully human.
Keep up the good work. Bob Ronai from St Ives
Sounds like that guy has energy to burn, in all the wrong places. A type is a typo - fix it when you find it and move on. Plenty of more important and lovely things to focus on than slippery typing fingers!
You did the right thing to let it go. Send the guy some compassion vibes and get on with enjoying your day!
Zoe from Canberra
My name was misspelt in an recent email to a large number of people, I have had a chuckle, the person who misspelt my name is mortified and one of customers has had fun.
As Alison says there are more important issues than grammar and spelling, however, we should try for precision in our communications.
A typo can never deserve vitriol, but it may warrant an apology if it has inadvertently offended someone . Norman (not as was spelt normal!!) from Elsternwick
The gift of spelling, reading, writing and comprehension is not to be taken lightly. Having helped a couple of people to read the basics has been a very interesting lesson in 'not taking for granted' the skills we do possess. However, things can be taken to far sometimes. PC-ness has forced some people to become overly protective or to become police. Sending sms in shortened words is an acceptable way of communicating now which I don't mind. What really gets me going more than incorrect grammar or spelling, is the lack of weight that people give to their words. Say what you mean, mean what you say. Remove the ambiguity from your messages, clarify your meaning and life would be a whole lot easier! Laynie - Business & Office Solutions Centre from NSW Central Coast

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