Sick Pride/Irrational Perfectionism
It really irks me when there are ANY typos, formatting issues, etc... with websites that I am working on (e.g. this blog, Eat Richly, or my work web site). I always try to fix these mistakes ASAP. Even though I am sure that there are other mistakes out there and this sometimes prevents me from dealing with larger, more important issues, I slavishly correct minor errors as quickly as I can. Character flaw?
Forest > Trees.
ReplyDeleteThis is a big problem with written communication.
ReplyDeleteWhen you call someone on the phone, even if you stutter or say "umm", people don't think about it and pay attention to the content of what you say. On the other hand, when you send an email that has an obvious error it in it, it looks stupid and detracts from your message.
Because of this, people (myself included) spend way too much time correcting errors in written communication -- errors that often don't impede comprehension. If we could all make a pact to not proofread our emails, everyone would be better off.
Then again, so much of grammar and spelling has nothing to do with comprehension. In the end, it's just signaling. Everyone wants to look like he's part of the "club" that knows that "funner" isn't a word, even though no one really cares about the substantive issue.
Rich, tell me if you read this -- if I wrote this thoughtful comment without anyone reading it, I'm going to murder someone.
(Note: I didn't proofread this!)