Most Common Spelling Errors

I spend a good deal of time on digg and always find lots of interesting articles. Recently there was a blog from a gentleman named Johan Holmberg who posts his musings at a place called The Probabilist. Recently he wrote an article called: 10 Most Misspelled Words in Blogs.

As he admits, the title is a bit of a misnomer since most of the words he cites aren't actually misspelled as much as they are misused. And they certainly aren't confined to use in blogs. Their confusion is rampant in most of the English-speaking / writing world!

So without his permission, but certainly giving him credit, I am going to reproduce Mr. Holmberg's list and provide you with my comments on the correct use of these sometimes tricky words.

1. Your / You're

This seems to confuse a lot of people. Your is a possessive adjective used to describe ownership of something (your hat, your cat, your stupid blog). You're is a contraction for you are. (You're wrong!) But how often do you ready something like: Your not going to like this, but you're dog just died!)

2. Then / Than

Another common mistake that I think often happens from typing too fast rather than not knowing the difference. Then implies time. Something happens, then something else happens. Than usually focuses on a comparison. Bigger than something.

3. Its / It's

This is very similar to #1 above. Its is a possessive adjective that references something without specifying gender. Its hand. Its strong odor. It's is a contraction for it is. If you can substitute it is in context, use the one with the apostrophe.

4. To / Too / Two

I think most people understand the difference, but it's very easy to type the wrong one. Just for clarification, to is a preposition (give it to me) or part of a verb infinitive (to give); too simply means also or in addition; two is the number between one and three.

5. Were / Where / We're

Another goofy trio! I think most people know what where means. It's just very easy to leave out the h. Were is a verb. Where were you? Were you sick? We're is a contraction for we are. Again, just substitute we are for the word you're trying to use and if it works, use the one with the apostrophe. Obviously, "I thought you we're coming," doesn't work.

6. There / Their / They're

I think this is one of the most confusing sets of words in the entire language. At least I seem them misused even in professional publications. There is technically an adverb. It is use to indicate where something is (Look over there!) or that something exists (There has to be an answer!). Their is one of those pesky possessive adjectives. Their car, their house, their overweight cat. They're is a contraction for they are. Again, substitute to help decide which is the correct word to use.

7. A / An / And

It's easy to type the wrong one, but I think most people know what is correct. The problem comes with whether a or an should be used in certain situations. The best rule to follow is to use a before consonant sounds - even if the letter is a vowel (a historic date, a united front, a one-year contract). Use an before vowel sounds (an honorable event, an NFL game, an energy crunch).

8. Off / Of

A very common typo that I don't think has anything to do with lack of understanding of the difference between the words. If you really need to know what they mean and how to use them, email me.

9. Hear / Here

If what you are writing about has anything to do with your ears or sound, you should be using hear. It you an indicating a place, use here. If you need to write about what your ears are doing when you move from place to place, you're on your own!

10. Lose / Loose

This pair of words tends to throw just about everyone at one time or another. Lose is a verb. It is the opposite of win. Loose is an adjective meaning something is not constrained. Don't lose your cool is your dog gets loose.


I have two more that I would like to add to this list.

11. Choice / Choose

This is a lot like #10. A choice is the thing that you select. Choose is the action of selecting it. So what you do is choose your choice.

12. Lay / Lie / Lain/ Layed / Laid

I have no idea. Use your spell-checker, grab the dictionary, try to sound it out. There's a 20% chance you'll get it right even if you just select one at random, so take your best shot and move on!

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Marketers Are Idiots - Part One

Because I work in the field of marketing I am very, very critical of the legion of idiots that work in my industry. I don't know how they get - or keep - their jobs, but somehow they do and they continue to demonstrate their stupidity on a massive scale each day.

This will be the first of many rants against my foolish colleagues.

It's coming up on tax time, so we're seeing a lot of ads from H&R Block for their income tax preparation software. I think it's very interesting that they aren't promoting their famous, but flawed, tax service - but they are going head-to-head with Intuit and the industry-leading TurboTax.

In their poorly produced television commercial they have a poor guy sitting at a table in front of his computer and it turns out he and his wife are being audited by the IRS. His horribly bitchy wife makes some comment about needing professional help and then sarcastically points out that their income tax was prepared by "a box." She snottily suggests her husband ask the box for help, which he does. She then makes some snide comment about the box not being able to help and continues to rip on her husband about how stupid he was to let their taxes be done by - a box.

Then the commercial cuts to - a box! The H&R TaxCut software box. It looks exactly like the box they just criticized so thoroughly, except it's an H&R box instead of whatever they were ragging on - certainly NOT a TurboTax box.

This is just stupid. You don't criticize the competition for coming in a box and then show your product's box!

The H&R people are so close to what they are doing that they mistakenly think everyone out there is going to perceive the differences in these two boxes. But they, like so many marketers and advertisers, are just talking to themselves. They make an inferior product with no real point of differentiation and have no clue what to do about it other than spend lots and lots of money on ineffective television advertising.

H&R Block is not long for this world. I say good riddance.

Prayer for a Dead Horse?

Among the "important" news stories today is the fact that Barbaro, last year's winner of the Kentucky Derby who famously came up lame in the Preakness Stakes, was euthanized. Complications from the surgery to repair his broken leg made it impossible for the horse to stand, so the decision was made to end its life.

Sad, yes, I agree. But I am somewhat at a loss to understand the country's reaction to this animal's injury, recovery and death.

On the NBC Nightly News Brian Williams led the story with an explanation - almost an apology - as to why with all that is going on in the world today they chose to devote valuable news time to this story. He mentioned the outpouring of cards and letters sent to the horse (which, by the way could not read) and the tears shed by so many people throughout the country. Amazingly some $1 million has been donated to help fix pampered race horses in the future that might suffer a similar ailment. I can think of a lot better uses for this money, but no one yet has asked me for my opinion.

What made me shake my head in disgusted amazement as I was watching the story is when the wealthy owner of Barbaro, Gretchen Jackson, stood in front of a sea of microphones, obviously holding back the tears, and sadly asked for a prayer for Barbaro. Yes, a prayer for a dead horse! Please, God, accept this poor horse into heaven. He could run so fast and earned us so much money. We won't get any stud fees now that he's gone and he sure doesn't deserve to go to Hell.

Several brave American soldiers died in Iraq this week. NBC Nightly News now only gives us the number - not the names, no pictures, no tribute. Nobody is donating $1 million for their fatherless children, but at least we'll be able to pay for broken leg surgery on race horses in the future.

Disgusting. Rest in peace, Barbaro.

Everybody Panic!

I've been subscribing to Time Magazine for - and this is starting to make me feel really old - 34 years! Yes, I started reading it as a toddler. You'd think they'd offer me a free subscription at this point, but I still pay for it a couple of years at a time.

I've been reading it that long because I like it - obviously. I find the commentary balanced and the news informative. I like the mix of world, national and scientific news, and the reviews of books, movies, art and products. The photography is always good and with a few exceptions, I like the columnists.

But this blog isn't about how wonderful Time Magazine is. It's about an incredibly interesting article that appeared in the December 4, 2006 issue - Why we worry about things we shouldn't ... and ignore the things we should by Jeffrey Kluger.

The psychology behind our everyday fears is fascinating and occupies much of the article. However, I find it very enlightening to look at the overall statistical illogic of what scares us most compared to what should. For example, we all know that heart disease and cancer are the two leading causes of death in America today. Together they account for all most half of the annual death toll in the country (49.7%). But look at all the headlines about bird flu, mad cow disease and the West Nile virus. Not a single person has died in the U.S. from the first two, and there have been only 264 of WNV. Thank you, Media...let's panic! Malnutrition takes almost 12 times as many lives annually as West Nile - and that toll is surpassed by both anemia and asthma!

For whatever reason, many of us view disease as something out of our control. We're either going to get sick - or not - and many people don't think the exercise, diet and stop-smoking recommendations of medical professionals will have much effect. Or if they will, it is so far in the future that there will be time to make amends for today's indiscretions.

When it comes to accidental causes of death, we tend to be far more irrational in our fears and the activities we avoid. The single most dangerous and deadly activity in which you can engage each day is to simply go somewhere in an automobile. Almost 45,000 people lose their lives each year in some sort of motor-vehicle accident. Compared to the overall number of deaths in the country each year that is a relatively low number - about 0.02% - but it is far and away the most like form of accident from which you might die.

But what do we find most frightening? A shark attack? Killer bees? Snakebite? An airplane crash? How about getting struck by lightning?

Here are the likelihoods of these things killing you:

• Shark or other marine-animal attack - 1 in 109,000 or 0.0009%
• Snakebite - 1 in 54,639 or 0.002%
• Airplane crash - 1 in 4,967 or 0.02%
• Struck by lightning - 1 in 2,325 or 0.04%
• Bee or wasp sting - 1 in 1,656 or 0.06%

It is far more likely that you will die from taking a bath, falling out of bed or choking on a piece of food that ALL of these fearful activities combined! Most of us aren't ready to stop bathing, sleeping or eating - yet we will run screaming if we even suspect a bee or snake might be in the vicinity.

The Time article points out the phenomenon of real vs. perceived risk in our behaviors. Quite simply we avoid those things that we think are risky and tend to look the other way when the facts interfere with our daily activities. The fact of the matter is that at one point or another all of us are going to die. And we really don't know how much control we have over when and how it's going to happen. Perhaps we have none at all. At the very least we should do everything we can to avoid worrying ourselves to death over how we're going to die. The strange irony in that situation should be obvious.

Credit Card Rant

I've been hearing a lot lately about all the strategies the credit card companies employ to bilk hardworking Americans out of every possible penny they possibly can. You know those pages and pages of terms and conditions that accompany every offer? Believe me, they weren't written so that you can understand to what you are subjecting yourself by using that bank's credit card! There is a consequence and a penalty for just about anything you do that doesn't fit with their ideal scenario for taking your money. Heck, even if you pay the full amount on time each month and don't carry a balance they'll find a way to stick it to you! And the greedy bastards are always looking for more.

I bank with Wachovia. When I opened my checking account almost two years ago, I asked about overdraft protection. The offered it, but tied to a Wachovia credit card. OK, no problem. I filled out the application and was approved.

A couple of months ago I got a notice in the mail that Wachovia was making some changes to their credit card system. It was very confusing, but it appears they decided to split off the card for which I had an account and issue a new one. If I wanted to continue overdraft protection I had to apply (or sign up, I don't really remember which) for the new card. However any balance on the old card would stay with the old card, and it would still be called Wachovia. (Believe me, I'm simplifying this tremendously.) It seems I was getting something in the mail from Wachovia almost daily about this switchover, and I'll be honest, I have better things to do than read all the fine print I receive from banks and credit card companies.

Well, I received a statement from my Wachovia World Points account and made a payment. I was unaware that the switch had already happened and felt confident that I had made the necessary payment for the month and was done with that account. What I failed to realize is that I got a second statement that month, and yes, I did not pay anything on it. You'd think I had killed a baby in its crib!

I got a very polite letter from Wachovia informing me I had not made a payment and the account was past due. It requested I make a payment as soon as possible and apologized if I had already done so. Realizing what I had done, I immediately went to their website and made an online payment to the account. Case closed, right?

When I got my next statement I received two rather irritating shocks. One, they had charged me a $30 late fee. OK, I was late. I got confused by their account shell game, but I couldn't very well argue that my payment was late. But on top of that, without drawing any attention to it whatsoever, I noticed they had increased my APR to - get this - 28%!!!

I wasn't even away they could go this high - especially in this day of 0% balance transfers and 3.99% for the life of the loan offers. The only good thing in this was that my balance was very low so the total interest charge wasn't that great. Also, because it was low, I knew I could pay it off and be done with these thieves.

I immediately sent them the balance due, looking forward to receiving the next month's statement showing a zero balance.

However, what I got instead was another letter from Wachovia. The gist of it was that because of my "record of missed payments" they were lowering my credit limit! HUH? One late payment because I was confused by their internal account realignment and they boost my APR to 28% and lower my credit limit by $1100!

Well, the next statement arrived a week or so later, and you know what? Even though I sent them the "total amount due" there was an interest charge of $4.19. I guess my payment didn't make it to them within their oh-so-generous grace period. The very day I received this statement I mailed a check for $4.19. I have subsequently received the next statement - and thank goodness - the balance is now zero!

My first thought was to immediately call and cancel this account. But you know what, I'm not going to. I don't know what it costs them to keep an account open on the books, but I'm going to let it stand. I may even request a limit increase or anything else I can think of that will cost them time and money for nothing in return. If anyone has any suggestions - legal suggestions - I would very much appreciate hearing them.

Lastly, I know the new Congress has a lot of important issues on its agenda, but I certainly hope credit card reform doesn't get lost in the shuffle. We need it more than ever. In the meantime, stay away from the Wachovia Card!

Rant over...