Friday, July 13, 2012

That Wonderful Friday Night Feeling

At work today I got a new report to edit, written by someone in our India office. As I said before, I'm sure that there are plenty of non-native English speakers who write well, but this report was not written by one of them. I found myself tilting my head at the document, like the RCA dog, trying to see through the fog of the writing to the meaning within.

There's so much wrong with it, it's hard to know where to begin; it reads like the words were run through a blender.

The writers are supposed to use that mythical editorial tool, spell-check, before sending work in, but I know this writer didn't. I know because, while I understand that typos can happen, if you run spell-check yourself you'll avoid the embarrassment of turning in a report on the Mexican healthcare landscape that includes a use of "Maxican" (not to mention "Equador" for Ecuador). Spell-check is far from perfect--I laughed when it wanted to change resectable to respectable--but though it won't solve all your spelling problems, it serves a definite purpose.

Ah well. It wasn't a bad day, un-English report and never-above-72-degrees-inside to the contrary notwithstanding, and it was Friday, above all, meaning leave an hour early, stop for groceries, and I was still home before I would have been on a regular day. I'll take it.

Also, can I tell you how much I'm enjoying getting an hour for lunch? Today I walked over to the mall, returned something at Sears, had some Chick-Fil-A for lunch, then stopped in the Godiva store to pick up some chocolate for a friend, get my free monthly piece, and try their new milkshake (I had milk chocolate caramel, and it was utterly delicious). Then I sauntered back in the lovely mid-day heat (still freezing inside), and was back at my desk with time to check my e-mail before returning to work. NTTTT.

Happy Friday!

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