Always Check
April 09, 2021

Over the past few weeks, I've been taking a semi-break. While maintaining my
daily writing habit, I've spent quite a bit of time getting my laptop configured
so that I can use it more efficiently for writing, as well as exploring the
linux operating system and some of its basic programs and functions. This, of
course, meant that I spent a lot more time than usual modifying programs and
settings on my laptop and reading websites and watching videos online. Which ate
into my writing time more than I realized at first; hence the long delay between
posts. But my laptop now does all I want it to do and more, so back to writing.

I saw an article the other day in the New York Times in which the reporter used
a word incorrectly. Not a spellcheck error of the "their/there/they're" variety,
but a word used in a sense entirely opposite to that word's meaning. It was so
wrong, I was surprised the editor hadn't caught it. I was equally surprised the
copy-editor hadn't caught it. In fact, it was so wrong I bookmarked the web page
to show my wife later.

I see two possible reasons for the reporter's error: either he was vaguely
familiar with the word, made a guess about what it meant but didn't bother to
check; or he felt sure about what the word meant (but was wrong) and so didn't
bother to check. 

Setting aside the issue that when I returned to the web page later, the New York
Times had corrected the reporter's error (but said only that the story had been
"updated"), seeing such a glaring misuse of language in print made me think of
two different essays: George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" and John
McPhee's "Draft No. 4[1]."

In the first essay, Orwell famously discusses the reciprocal effects of sloppy
writing and sloppy thinking. In the second, McPhee gives a method that allows
writers to prevent sloppy writing (and also avoid public embarassment): use a
dictionary. McPhee recommends a writer look up not only words that don't seem
right but those that do, in the hope of finding an even better word. McPhee
says:

  With dictionaries, I spend a great deal more time looking up words I
  know than words I've never heard of--at least ninety-nine to one.

I can't recommend this technique enough. I found several "better words" in the
dictionary as I wrote this blog post. I also removed a few that turned out to be
not-quite-right. When it comes to proper usage, don't take my word for it. Don't
take John McPhee's word for it. Don't even take your own word for it. Get a
dictionary and always check your work. Always check your work.

[1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/04/29/draft-no-4

(c) 2021 by Andrew Gudgel 
email: contact [at] andrewgudgel.com