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A few days ago I wrote about Lonelygirl15 and how it had been discovered that she was not an angst-ridden teenager, but a figment of some filmmaker's imagination....
Just today the New York Times published a great article profiled Lonelygirl, revealing her real name (Jessica Rose), where she's from (New Zealand), and so on.
In my article from September 8th though, I did something pretty typical (for me) -- I misspelt something, namely "Lonelygirl." I actually spelled her ID "Lonleygirl," which still looks right to me. :-) Unfortunately because Lonleygirl15 slipped past the spellcheck, and I'm dyslexic and also didn't catch it, it went live. As it turns out, a lot of other people can't spell "lonely" either, take a look at this:
Yep -- over 1,000 people hit my site because they misspelled "lonelygirl15," too, and that's just since since September 8th. Not only does it indicate a lot of people are misspelling it, it also indicates how huge a story this is, and how many people are interested in it.
In many ways, I am an unlikely blogger because I suffered so badly at school due to my poor written work. Oral exams were almost always an A, and written projects always a C, so when I left school I vowed never to write again.
Here I am now 3+ years into blogging, and I accept that mistakes will happen, but they don't define my work, my world, or my perception of myself. Although I still have some very good friends that read my blog and just beg me to get an editor, I wonder: does the value of getting my thinking and ideas out there in the world outweigh the possibility that my credibility will be hurt when people discover that I am a total grammar and spelling dunce?
It's awful to admit but on the occasion that I've been a participant in online dating, I've skipped over profiles that made heinous spelling errors. Am I a "spellist" of the worst kind...?
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Comments
I hadn't heard heard of Lonelygirl at all. We have a similar success story over here in the UK: Peter aka geriatric 727
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=geriatric1927
Posted by: Laurence-Helene | 09.14.06
Karl, here's the thing about spelling mistakes. People like me, who create and miss as many typos and misspellings as you, have spent their entire lives immersed in English. Often, we are elitist about our writing abilities and purposely look for others' errors.
We are marketers, public relations specialists, copy writers, business consultants, etc. We see every mistake someone else makes, we cringe, we criticize and often within that criticism, we make a spelling or grammar error. We are little to no threat to your credibility.
However, there is another group that we all need worry about. They are the decision makers and buyers of our products and services. Many of them are detail oriented. When they see our errors, our credibility suffers. It may not result in our third strike, but it is a first strike and creates a disadvantage for us.
Happy Thursday!
Posted by: Lewis Green | 09.14.06
But geriatric1927 isn't fake is he? I saw a couple of his videos and he seems like a genuine character. Lonleygirl15 on the other hand is an actress and all here videos were scripted by some film makers.
Posted by: Karl Long | 09.14.06
You know how they say that the only things certain in life are "Death and taxes"?
Nope, it's more like "Death, taxes...and typos"! Happens to us all--just goes to show that we're human :-).
Posted by: CK | 09.14.06
Nice to know I am not alone!! I try and paste my blog entries into Word, but often forget.
Posted by: Michael A. Stelzner | 09.14.06
Karl -- When you make your first million blogging, definitely hire an editor! But until then, I guess you are left to your own checking and re-checking. It doesn't hurt your credibility necessarily, but it's probably hard for YOU to realize the mistakes. I know that my own son, also dyslexic, cringes far worse than I do when he realizes he screwed up spelling or usage....
Posted by: Ann Handley | 09.14.06