Coakley & Nattering Can't Spell Massachusetts

[Bob Nattering]

I have never been able to spell "Massachusetts" correctly without the help of a reference. Apparently, neither can Martha Coakley, who is seeking Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in that State. She put out an attack add against Republican opponent Scott Brown in which the attribution line refers to her state as "Massachusettes." (It's a little difficult to see in the attached photo, but if you squint you can just make out the extra "e").

I really don't have to be able to spell the name of Coakley's State without references and neither does she, unless one of us enters a spelling bee. In this day and age the references are available, along with spell checkers to alert us to errors. The issue here is attention to detail. Even though it was probably someone else in Coakley's campaign who made the error, it definitely looks bad. The add was pulled after bloggers had a heyday.

Attention to detail:

753

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Without defending Coakley, it needs to be pointed out . . Graphic Artists, Signmakers, typesetters (?) and proof readers need to know how to spell (and proofread) . . or activate their spellcheck in the application they use . .

Something that seemingly doesn't happen too much anymore . . AP's articles are a spelling travesty . . Chieftain's getting worse by the day also . .

[Bob Nattering]

Without defending Coakley, it needs to be pointed out . . Graphic Artists, Signmakers, typesetters (?) and proof readers need to know how to spell (and proofread) . . or activate their spellcheck in the application they use . .

Something that seemingly doesn't happen too much anymore . . AP's articles are a spelling travesty . . Chieftain's getting worse by the day also . .

I notice errors on the internet versions of newspaper and wire service articles all the time. I don't know if those same errors always appear in the printed article, because I don't know the process of getting from one to the other.

I see a lot of errors that look like a typo, but when the typo is a word it won't get picked up by the spell checker(e.g "the" instead of "there", "an" instead of "and"). That kind of error makes me think that there is much less detailed human editing than was the case before spell checkers. I suspect a lot of the errors are a natural consequence of financial woes in the industry.

Regarding Coakley, I wouldn't let something that trite govern my decision on who to vote for. It's just kinda fun to catch someone pointing a critical finger, when their own fly is unzipped. (metaphorically or literally).

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The ones that grind my grits are definitive mis-spellings . .

E.G.; Sight instead of cite, or site, depending, of course upon the meaning . . Just an example, although I could go on for several pages . .

[Bob Nattering]

The ones that grind my grits are definitive mis-spellings . .

E.G.; Sight instead of cite, or site, depending, of course upon the meaning . . Just an example, although I could go on for several pages . .

My theory on those errors is that they come from younger writers, whose education did not emphasize spelling. Spelling was no longer important, because we had spell checkers. The problem is that it caused these people to completely miss the difference between sight, site and cite (or to, too and two).

[davide]

I here you.

[Marc.N]

Davide, I bow to your knowledge of tits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit_%28bird%29). Especially Great Tits. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Tit)