Companies sometimes intentionally misspell a product’s name in order to get customers’ attention. These deliberate mistakes, such as Cheez Whiz, Krispy Kreme, and Froot Loops, are also called sensational spelling or divergent spelling. This is part...
Grant and Martha recently served as expert spellers at the San Diego Council on Literacy’s annual adult spelling bee, but don’t let the age group or philanthropic mission fool you-spelling bees are always i-n-t-e-n-s-e. The word Rorschach shall...
Autocorrect mistakes abound, but have you ever made the errors yourself, such as typing the word buy when you meant by? Studies in Computer Mediated Communications have linked this phenomenon to the way we process words phonetically before typing...
The word sic, meaning “thus” in Latin, is placed in the text when an author knowingly quotes a misspelled word or otherwise incorrect statement. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Known Misspelling in Quote” Grant, here’s an email in...
Tom from Phoenix still remembers losing a seventh-grade spelling bee over dilemma, because he had been taught there was a silent n and wrote dilemna. The standard spelling is dilemma, and the dictionaries checked don’t list dilemna. Still, Tom isn’t...
