Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Bicyclist: Fatals

Two fatals, both by people who have been performing very well in this class sofar (which shows you that fatals can happen to anybody, once you let down your guard).

In one, the spell check was cool with you referring to a gull bladder.

I'm pretty sure you meant gall bladder, and not the bladder of a sea-faring bird.

Let's all say it together: Spell check is an aid to -- but not a substitute for -- rigorously reviewing your copy. Line by line, word by word, fact by fact.

By the way, somebody made this exact same mistake last fall. History really does repeat itself.

The other involved a quote where you dropped a letter. You wrote that Taylor had a "broke neck" when it fact it should have been "broken neck."

One dropped word. That's all it takes to fatal. And again, spell check wouldn't have caught that.

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