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From: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.nlang
Subject: Re: "(sp?)" considered wimpy.
Message-ID: <3667@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 22-Feb-85 00:43:35 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.3667
Posted: Fri Feb 22 00:43:35 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Feb-85 03:49:20 EST
References: <311@ihu1m.UUCP>
Reply-To: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Distribution: net
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 31
Xref: watmath net.flame:8481 net.nlang:2610


I consider myself a reasonably good speller.  However, sometimes I am
not quite sure that I have spelled a word correctly, it just doesn't
look right.  This can often happen with foreign words or names ("Iatola"
was used as an example in the original posting, as a misspelling of
"Ayatolla" (actually, I'm not sure if it is one "l" or two)).  In such
cases I will often use "(sp?)".

Why do I do it?  It isn't to flaunt my ignorance.  On the contrary, it
is to indicate that I know that I may be mistaken.  It is like beginning
a statement with "I'm not sure, but I think...".  Another reason that I
do this is to (hopefully) prevent people from sending replies whose only
purpose is to inform me that I made a spelling mistake; they won't
bother since it is obvious that I know I may have made a mistake.  In
some sense, I'm saying "Yes, I know how to spell, but I also know that
I'm not perfect."

Yes, I have heard of the dictionary.  However, one is not always handy
when you are trying to write a quick note.  Since I rarely misspell, I
don't think it is worth my while to go to extra effort to have one
handy.  As I said, my biggest problem is with weird names, and the
dictionary is not likely to help me when I'm trying to remember whether
it is "Teri Garr", "Terri Gar", or "Terri Garr" (luckily I DO know that
the first name ends in "i", not "y").

[Boy, will I feel like a twit if I've made a spelling mistake in this
note.]
-- 
    Barry Margolin
    ARPA: barmar@MIT-Multics
    UUCP: ..!genrad!mit-eddie!barmar