Like a 1930s Pan Am Clipper whisking us to parts unknown, our fingers fly equally fast across keyboards or touchscreens, often with the intent of taking readers to similar exotic destinations. When we don’t take a few moments to check our spelling, who knows where our readers will arrive? By the following examples, and made-up definitions, we see that sometimes they’ll end up in a far different place.

CASUALTIES

Stonedhedge – A line of bushes used to hide casual drug use. 

Nakropolis – City of nudists

Pyramids of Geezer – Large stone structures on the front porch of an old man who yells at people for walking on his lawn.

Mecha – The holy land of robots.

Deaf Valley – A desert in the southwest US where the extreme heat causes hearing loss.

Parsenon – An ancient Greek building used for the analysis of sentence grammar

CORRECT SPELLINGS

Stonehenge

Necropolis

Pyramids of Giza

Mecca

Death Valley

Parthenon

I captured these years ago in a piece I was proofreading. The author was embarrassed to see these errors, telling me these places are common enough to easily verify, even if spellcheck fails. Yep. I told him that sometimes our eagerness to complete a piece causes us to forget a step or two. That’s ok. And that’s where a good proofreader and editor can help (though you probably want them checking the tough stuff, not the gimmes).

Good luck with your writing!

–Mike

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© Michael Wallevand, July 2021