Kirk Mahoney . com

I saw an expression that went something like this recently.

Problem:
The word “isle” — spelled I-S-L-E — is the wrong noun here.

Explanation:
I saw this expression in a comment attached to someone’s blog post about a technology and the impact of the two leading U.S. presidential candidates on that technology.

The comment submitter knew the expression “reaching across the aisle” by sound, where the noun “aisle” refers to the virtual or physical aisle that separates Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress, and where “reaching across” refers to coming to common agreement on a legislative bill or proposal.

However, the comment submitter apparently did not know that this “aisle” is spelled A-I-S-L-E.

The comment submitter’s misspelling paints a humorous picture: Democrats and Republicans reaching across an isle, or island, instead of reaching across an aisle, or walkway.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

• “reach across the aisle” — with A-I-S-L-E — 165,000 matches
• “reaching across the aisle” — with A-I-S-L-E — 111,000 matches
• “reach across the isle” — with I-S-L-E — 4,110 matches
• “reaching across the isle” — with I-S-L-E — 10,500 matches

The counts for the two correct spellings sum to about 276,000 matches. The counts for the two incorrect spellings sum to about 14,610 matches.

This tells me that Web authors have favored the correct spelling versus the incorrect spelling by a ratio of 18.9-to-1, which is mediocre.

Solution:
“Republicans and Democrats reach across the aisle …”

I saw one of these verbs while investigating the word “disdain”.

Problem:
These two verbs have distinct meanings but differ by only one letter.

Explanation:
Feeling playful, I wondered this morning whether the word “disdain” had a counterpart word “dain”.

So I searched a dictionary for “dain” but found no match. Instead, I learned that “disdain” — spelled D-I-S-D-A-I-N — comes from “dis” plus “deign” — spelled D-E-I-G-N.

I also learned that one of the synonyms for “disdain” as a verb is the verb “contemn” — spelled C-O-N-T-E-M-N.

The meaning of this verb “contemn” is to treat with contempt.

In contrast, the verb “condemn” — spelled C-O-N-D-E-M-N with a “d” in the middle — means to express strong disapproval of and is related to the roots “con” and “damn”.

Here are examples of proper use of these two verbs:

• (Quote) “Please do not condemn him for wanting to take care of his family.” (unquote)
• (Quote) “The consultant contemns any client who asks questions after what the consultant gives what he believes is a thorough presentation.” (unquote)

Solution:
Remember that “condemn” — spelled with a “d” — is related to the word “damn”. Remember that “contemn” — spelled with a “t” — is related to “contempt” — also spelled with a “t”.

I saw this the other day at the Gizmo5 website.

Problem:
A pronoun appeared where a contraction should have appeared.

Explanation:
The full sentence on one of the pages at Gizmo5.com was (quote) “If you can’t find the answer your looking for here please contact us and we’ll be glad to fill in the details.” (unquote).

Beyond the comma that was missing after the word “here”, the bigger problem was that the author of this sentence used the pronoun “your” where the word “you’re” — a contraction for “you are” — should have appeared.

As I have written in at least one other blog post, many speakers of American English tend to make the common English blunder of pronouncing “your” and “you’re” in the same way, even though these two words have different pronunciations.

I believe that these mispronunciations drive what some would call misspellings — writing “your” where “you’re” is required, and vice-versa.

Solution:
“If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for …”

As I write this, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average has dropped from a record high one year ago to a five-year low.

Insanity is often defined as expecting your personal situation to improve while you continue to do what you always have done.

Protecting your working life from a worsening economy requires standing out — in a good way — from the crowd.

I believe that communicating better makes this possible.

Here are ten tips to keep working in a worsening economy, all with a focus on communicating better — doing something different, so that you’ll get different results.

Tip 1. Watch your spelling.

Here are some of the misspellings that I have documented in this blog:

• misspelling “extraordinary” as E-X-T-R-A-HYPHEN-O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y
• misspelling “pronunciation” as P-R-O-N-O-U-N-C-I-A-T-I-O-N
• misspelling “likelihood” as L-I-K-E-L-Y-SPACE-H-O-O-D
• misspelling “accessible” as A-C-C-E-S-S-A-B-L-E
• misspelling “supersede” as S-U-P-E-R-C-E-D-E

You can throw off half your audience and embarrass yourself by misspelling a word in the title of one of your PowerPoint slides, in an important email message to your boss or customer, or on the front page of a white paper that you have written.

If you know that you are not a good speller, then take action, starting today, to change this.

Tip 2. Watch your punctuation.

Here are some of the punctuation problems that I have discussed in my blog:

• misusing apostrophes
• misusing commas
• misusing hyphens

You can improve your punctuation skills. Start today by buying a good book or two about punctuation.

Tip 3. Watch your words.

Picking the wrong word is another way to look bad in front of your fellow employees, your boss, or your customer or prospect.

Here are some pairs of words that give people trouble:

• affect vs. effect;
• bring vs. carry;
• come vs. go
• lie vs. lay;
• nauseous vs. nauseated.

Some might argue that many Americans do not know the difference in each of the above word pairs, so you should not worry about knowing the differences.

I disagree. Knowing the differences in these and other commonly confused word pairs can set you apart from the crowd with someone who cares — someone who can give you a raise, someone who can recommend you for a promotion, or someone who can give you new or more business.

Tip 4. Watch your grammar.

While text messaging and instant messaging have encouraged people to write in sentence fragments, not knowing how to write complete, grammatically correct sentences in other written forms — email messages, white papers, etc. — can hurt your reputation with the people who have the most influence over your finances.

Here are some common mistakes with grammar:

• putting a preposition where it does not belong, such as in (quote) “on today” (unquote);
• using “I” where “me” is required, as in (quote) “for my colleagues and I” (unquote);
• using the wrong form of a verb, as in (quote) “Can Hillary be beat?” (unquote).

I could list many other types of mistakes with grammar, but you get the point.

If you have a basic discomfort with your grammar skills, then read some books about English grammar.

If you are generally confident about these skills but wonder on occasion whether something is correct, then research your question — here or elsewhere online. That nagging feeling is usually there for a good reason; pay attention to it!

Tip 5. Watch your slang.

Although slang can be fun to use, and although the origins of various slang expressions can be fascinating, using slang in your work life can hobble your career.

Here are some types of slang:

• regional slang, as in (quote) “y’all” (unquote) or (quote) “you guys” (unquote) in place of “you”;
• ethnic slang, as in (quote) “Where you at?” (unquote) or (quote) “Git ‘er done.” (unquote);
• corporate slang, as in (quote) “open architecture” (unquote) or (quote) “on the bubble” (unquote).

Now, you might know what all of the above examples mean, but this does not guarantee that your boss, your fellow employees, or your customers do, too.

A problem with regional slang is that people will use it against you by taking a “You are not from around here.” attitude.

A problem with ethnic slang is that people will use it against you by taking a “You are not one of us.” attitude.

And a problem with corporate slang is that it can seem intelligent when first read or heard but will later cause the reader or listener to wonder what you meant.

Tips 6-10.

I must postpone these for my next post.

Please think about these first five tips, take a break, and then return tomorrow for the remaining tips!

I saw this in a corporate message.

Problem:
The adjective is misspelled.

Explanation:
The correct spelling of the twice-used adjective in the sentence should have no hyphen.

I believe that the insertion of the hyphen reflects the writer’s discomfort with the presence of adjacent vowels that are parts of separate syllables.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following spellings (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

• “extraordinary” — spelled E-X-T-R-A-O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y — 65,500,000 matches
• “extra-ordinary” — spelled E-X-T-R-A-HYPHEN-O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y — 1,470,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have spelled this adjective correctly versus incorrectly by a ratio of 44.6-to-1, which is good but not great, especially given the nearly 1.5 million misspellings.

Solution:
“These extraordinary times called for extraordinary actions.”

I wrote a blog post a few days ago about how eleven misspellings cost the city of Livermore, California, six thousand dollars plus the round-trip airfare for a Miami artist to fix her work.

Here is another example of a costly misspelling.

The owners of a home in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England, had (quote) “MILLENIUM HOUSE” (unquote) — with only one “N” in the middle of the first word — carved by a stone mason into a huge piece of stone that sits above the entrance to their home.

Apparently, the Knaresborough construction company that built the house was named (quote) “Millenium Designs” (unquote) — again with only one “n” in the middle of the first word — and the home owners unfortunately assumed that the home builder had spelled “Millennium” correctly.

So the home owners copied a misspelling, and they did it so royally that the misspelling is carved into stone.

What is worse is that the stone is not easily replaced, given that it supports the stone wall above the entrance.

I wonder how much this misspelling would cost to correct. I assume it would be higher than the US$600 per misspelling paid by Livermore, California, for the misspellings in its mosaic.

What is the most expensive misspelling about which you have ever read? If you have one that you want me to share with other readers, please contact me. Be sure to include a link to the Web page where the misspelling is described.

I frequently hear this and occasionally see this.

Problem:
“Pronounciation” is a misspelling and mispronunciation that makes the writer or speaker sound dumb.

Explanation:
“Pronounciation” is an ignorant conversion of the verb “pronounce” into a noun.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following words (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

• “pronunciation” — 20,700,000 matches
• “pronounciation” — 1,130,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the correct word vs. the incorrect word by a ratio of 18.3-to-1, which is not good, especially given more than a million matches for the incorrect word.

Solution:
“Pronunciation”

I once supervised a software developer who told me that he was not an English major — and therefore had no liability to correct misspellings — when I pointed out a misspelling in an application that he was developing.

His comment astounded me because spelling is a BASIC skill to me.

He almost responded as if I were asking him to write a book about the history of the English language.

No matter what your walk of life, the ability to spell correctly does matter, and I plan to write some blog posts about the importance of spelling words correctly, as well as what can happen because of misspellings.

Here is my first example.

The city of Livermore, California, paid Miami (Florida) artist Maria Alquilar forty thousand dollars to create a sixteen-foot circular mosaic.

Alquilar designed the mosaic for the Livermore public library.

Unfortunately, the mosaic made the city famous in a bad way because the artist originally embedded eleven misspellings in the mosaic’s tiles, including these misspellings of famous people:

• “Eistein”, spelled E-I-S-T-E-I-N, instead of “Einstein”, spelled E-I-N-S-T-E-I-N, for Albert Einstein;
• “Gaugan”, spelled G-A-U-G-A-N, instead of “Gauguin”, spelled G-A-U-G-U-I-N, for Paul Gauguin;
• “Shakespere”, spelled S-H-A-K-E-S-P-E-R-E, instead of “Shakespeare”, spelled S-H-A-K-E-S-P-E-A-R-E, for William Shakespeare.

Apparently, the artist’s original response was that she was not responsible for correcting the misspellings because she was using artistic license.

Livermore eventually spent another six thousand dollars, plus airfare, some three years ago this month — in August, 2005 — to have the artist travel back to Livermore and correct her misspellings.

If the airfare was $600, then Livermore paid SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS PER MISSPELLING for the corrections.

What is the most expensive misspelling about which you have ever read? If you have one that you want me to share with other readers, please contact me. Be sure to include a link to the Web page where the misspelling is described.

I saw the first word repeatedly while watching telecasts of the 2008 Olympics.

Problem:
Because these two words are homophones, context is required to distinguish them in speech.

Explanation:
A “scull” — spelled S-C-U-L-L — as a noun is an oar, often with a cupped blade, and often mounted on a fulcrum at a small boat’s stern.

It is this S-C word that repeatedly was spoken and displayed in the TV coverage of the 2008 Olympics.

A “skull” — spelled S-K-U-L-L — as a noun is the bones that make up the head of an animal.

Each of these words can also be used as a verb.

The word “scull” — spelled with a “c” — as a verb means to propel by means of one or more sculls.

The word “skull” — spelled with a “k” — as a verb means to strike a blow to the head.

Although some lexicographers believe that both words come from the French word “escuelle”, which means dish, many others believe that “scull” — with a “c” — comes from the Middle English word “sculle” and that “skull” — with a “k” — comes from the Old Norse word “skalli”, which means bald head and also is spelled with a “k”.

Solution:
Think “rowing oar” when you see “scull” with a “c” or when the spoken context implies a reference to rowing. Think “head” when you see “skull” with a “k” or when the spoken context implies a reference to the head.

I heard this repeatedly across multiple airings of a Barack Obama television ad in the past two days.

Problem:
The second noun was mispronounced, and I misspelled it to match the mispronunciation.

Explanation:
The TV advertisement was for U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, and it focused on energy issues.

The complete sentence was (quote) “The hands that install rooves can also install solar panels.” (unquote).

I wondered whether I misheard the voice-over announcer, so I carefully listened to him say (quote) “rooves” (unquote) in the second and subsequent airings.

It is a fairly common English blunder to pronounce the plural of the noun “roof” as (quote) “rooves” (unquote).

Solution:
“The hands that install roofs …”