8.44 Autocorrect--or automatic nightmare?

Raise your hand if you never use the autocorrect function!I thought so. Autocorrect has become ubiquitous--and if you're not sure how to spell "ubiquitous," autocorrect will jump in!Unfortunately, it sometimes jumps in with the wrong word. This happened in our last newsletter. Autocorrect doesn't know the word "Thaler," and thought I must mean "Taylor." I caught all but one of the misspellings, and saw the last one only once the newsletter was sent.Thaler's book is on amazon.com at: http://bit.ly/ThalerMisbehavingPurchase the audio version and listen to it on the schoolbus!

Athena Advises

Was I annoyed and embarrassed? Yes. Did I lose sleep over this? No. That's because I think newsletters fall into the category of enterprises covered by the advice: "The perfect is the enemy of the good."On the other hand, if I were composing my application to the university of my dreams, I would definitely obsess over every point of grammar and every conceivably misspelled word. I would most certainly not rely on autocorrect to clean up my grammar or my spelling. In fact, I would be on guard lest autocorrect second guess me at a crucial moment.I would be especially scrupulous about checking names."What names?" you may wonder.The names of the universities to which you are applying.Go to the website of the university in question and make sure you have spelled the name of the university correctly. Otherwise, how will you know whether the University of Wisconsin capitalizes the "t" in "the"? It doesn't, but it does insert a hyphen in the abbreviation "UW-Madison." The University of California also uses a lowercase "t", but does not insert a hyphen in, for example, "UC Berkeley."That's B-E-R-K-E-L-E-Y.By the way, if you are applying to Berkeley, be sure to get your application in by November 30!Wishing you an application that is perfect in every way, Dr. Marlena CorcoranFounder and CEOAuthor of Year by Year to College, on amazon.com, amazon.de and many national amazon sites