Could it be this post concerns those criminal elements referred to as skells by New York's Finest?
Absolutely...maybe.
The most underappreciated skill is the ability to know when a word is, for example, skell or skill.
Yes, I know skel has only one 'l' in it. Really I do.
Yet I read, too often for my now irritated eyes and brain, the use of words that are close in sound, but distant in meaning, applied to various issues.
Examples such as "ensure" being substituted for "insure." One means making sure something happens, the other indemnifying against some loss.
How about "loose" and "lose," being substituted, one for another. One is not too tightly fastened or affixed, the other means something's gone missing and might be at the Lost and Found by the time the loss is noticed.
Sometimes there is no spell checker involved. There is just error from being careless.
Spell checkers are a wondrous invention. They can suss out what word you might be trying to type and give you options. However, the check system doesn't always get the meaning right when one word with a certain meaning gets substituted for another, with a very different meaning, yet both are phonetically pretty much the same.
Call in Strunk and White. Call in Captain Grammar.
If you are relying on your spell checker, you'd better read what you are writing closely, because those errors introduced by misapplied spellings to meaning-inappropriate words, can have bad consequences.
An interviewer was discussing errors on resumes. One error and the resume is tossed out, and often the errors are simple typos made by spell checkers. The Human Resources people know this. And they still toss out those resumes. That means, if a job applicant is the very best person for the job, yet is not careful enough to make sure the copy is precise, with word meanings exactly what they ought to be, or where a resume contains an entirely wrong word for the place the word is put, that job seeker is still unemployed.
Job seekers of any age must remember one thing about the job market. When you are at work, there is only one passing grade, and that is make everything you do as close to perfect as humanly possible.
If you are unsure about your cover letter and/or resume, do one good favor for yourself. Hire someone or ask someone with good English skills, to read your resume and other communications, and make sure that the copy is perfect.
Something else to remember. If what you give to your proofreader is not clear as to meaning, you may still have errors on that page even after the editing is done. Don't let careless or moronic happen to you.
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| Photos courtesy of stuff-about.com |
Help yourself out. Get help when you need it. If you are the least bit unsure, get help. Learn proper grammar, spelling and word usage. The skills come with reading books, with writing on a daily basis, and with paying attention to what you read and what you and others say, evaluating everything for form and content.
Now, I've also committed errors in this post. I have left them in, just to challenge you, my Musing readers. And, in other posts, there are sentence fragments and other grammatical sins committed by me regularly. Those fragments and made up words are used for style, because this is a blog. This is not a cover letter for a job application.
Know your audience, and if you need proofreading, editing or other assistance, get it. The Muse is here to help.
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