SPELL-CHECK, SNARK-CHECK
"Sometimes I spell a word so wrong that even auto-correct says, "Hey, man, sorry. I've got nothing for you."
Anonymous
I have children who won
county-wide spelling bees, but they didn't get that skill from me. I spell so
badly I even developed a pet peeve about it, back in the days of paper
dictionaries: how are you supposed to find the correct spelling of a word when
the only way to find it in the dictionary is if you can spell it correctly? So
spell-check is a great blessing to me. I automatically scan everything,
especially emails. Nothing goes out without spell-check.
It's too bad there's not
an app that checks for mean words or ugly tone. Call it
"Snark-Check." Saying something perceived as cruel or sarcastic or
snarky can create lots more trouble than sending out a misspelled word. After
one too many of such incidents, I ran into these wise words from Calvin
Coolidge: "I have never
been hurt by what I have not said."
I took his wisdom to heart and developed a little rule for myself:
Never Send Bad News in
an Email or Text. If it might sound harsh or negative or
mean-spirited, don't send it. If the answer is no, pick up the phone and call.
You can soften things in a conversation that sound brittle when written down.
You can take back something you've just said; it's much harder if it's in
writing. This simple rule has spared me a heap of trouble. I just wish I had
Snark-Check to warn me when I'm about to break it.
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