Slepp cHeq

As many of you know from my prior post, I'm in editor mode lately.

With that in mind, I've reached a simple conclusion:

Spell check is a crutch we should all learn to live without

 Why, you ask? 

I'll tell you why. 

Spell check is different in every program you use. The spell checkers are, in fact, vastly different between Yahoo and Google, between MS Word and Scrivener, between Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. 

Know what that means? 

It means sometimes it's very difficult to tell whether you're right or the computer's right. 

Personally, in one day I use almost everything on that list I just gave (I don't use IE), and by the end of the day sometimes I'm not even sure what words are contractions and what words aren't (mostly because some words that are contractions in the US aren't in Britain). 

The thing is, we've allowed spell checkers to become our crutch, the thing we lean on because we don't know enough about our own language to be able to stand up on our own two feet. 

Yes, spell check has it's uses. It's amazing in some cases and can be very helpful when you don't have enough time to make sure your writing is perfect. But when we allow it to get the better of us, when we find ourselves using it more than our clever little brains, we're in trouble. 

If you're a writer and you ever find yourself with this problem, I urge you to turn off your spell checker. 

Most of us still retain all the knowledge of our language that we learned in grade school. Thing is, we don't have need of it most of the time so our brains don't bother to access it. But if we didn't use spell checkers for a while, if we once again found need of all that information, I believe wholeheartedly that it would come back to us (and if you still have trouble, I suggest Googling for some helpful information). 

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. 

[love your editor]

{Rani Divine}