Please, Edit The Words You Write and Speak!

By sheila | October 25, 2012

I know my Blue Brain often is too creative and misspells words. However, not using the Precise Green and Correct Yellow definition of a word drives me and some of my fellow author’s crazy! My Green/Yellow Editor’s Brain gets a “Wacky Word Workout” when I read what others write and listen to them speak.

This morning, while listening to the radio, I heard the news story about the President of the Untied States. This misspelling of the United States was an error on voting ballots in the state of Washington. You can read more about this editing error in the Huffington Post Blog Post.

Many of my contemporaries, who were raised in during the 1940’s and 1950’s, were taught to say “Your are welcome.” after someone said, “Thank you.” Saying “No problem.” annoys me. I know that people possible mean, that it was not a problem for them to help me. However, “You are welcome” is the Yellow Correct/ Polite and Precise Green response to acknowledge your appreciation for someone’s kindness or service.

For example: last Saturday, I went to Best Buy to purchase a Kindle Fire HD as 70th birthday gift for my husband. After the sale transaction, I said, “Thank you.” to the Ryan, the helpful young salesman. Then Ryan replied, “No problem.” I could not contain myself and said, “Ryan, excuse me, of course this transaction was not a problem, you just made a sale.” He politely thanked me for calling his attention to his reply because another “older” customer had recently corrected his “no problem” response.

Now, for some inaccurate words:

I just read an email that said,” … is suffering from a stroke and… and his family are by his side. I have communicated our condolences.” Yikes, condolences! The man has not died! Maybe the writer should have communicated our concerns, not condolences.

Many times, clients write or say they are anxious to work with me. Yikes, anxious! I trust they area eager, not worried about working with me.

Last, but not least, “She goes…” or “I went..”, instead of “She says” or “I said.” Yikes! When someone is speaking they are not “going” or “moving their bodies from one place to another”. They are only moving their lips to formulate words and possible moving their bodies with a gesture to enhance what they are saying.

Are there words or expressions that drive your Green/Yellow Brain Editor Brain crazy?

P.S. I hope I have not made any spelling or grammatical errors.

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