I believe you have the wrong Margaret.

I do not remember writing this quote, though I certainly agree with it.
I have seen too many postings, to various lists, that are unintelligible
due to "creative" spelling and grammar.  Beyond spelling, there are also
posters who decide to give up punctuation, capitalization, or
word/sentence/paragraph spacing.  Equal offenders (sometimes worse) are
those who leave stray words and sentence lying around -proof that they
at least tried to organize their thoughts.  Worst of all are those who
fail to type all the words in a sentence, like nouns and verbs.  It
takes much less time to reread your message & make necessary
corrections, than to type a new message that clarifies what you were
trying to say in the first place.

It is all a matter of clarity and courtesy to those made privy to your
thoughts.

Margaret Lyman
[log in to unmask]


P.S. Nice advertising there John.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Leeke [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 1999 1:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Where's the real information


Hi Margaret !

>     While I'm here, could I request that people PLEASE learn how to
spell?
>     It's just a pet peeve-must be the nun influence in grade school
>     rearing it's ugly head! I do believe however, that people with as
much

I like your "pet peeve...grade school" comment. My pet peeve is that I
be
allow a few spelling mistakes. I did not pay too much attention during
grade
school. My teacher once said, "John Leeke, stop daydreaming. Just what
do
you see out that window anyway? Golden Castles?!" Well, of course I felt
put
down and embarassed, but how did she know I was envisioning golden
castles
out there? Either there *were* golden castles out there, or she could
read
my mind, or she just wanted to make me feel bad -- all very disturbing.
Undoubtedly the spelling lesson was taking place while I tried to sort
all
this out. What did she know about castles anyway, I now earn a good
living
and make a contribution to society preserving and restoring those golden
castles (and other historic buildings).

I am self employed and every second of every minute of every hour is
money.
If I stop to reply to a message it costs me money. If I bother to reply
I am
willing to give up this money to help someone out, but I often don't
bother
with formatting and spell checking because I figure the reader will get
to
the depth of my meaning without it. If I felt I had to spell check
everything it means I would reply to far fewer queries. Do you want
replies
and solid content? Or, do you want correct spelling and good form? With
me
it's often "take your choice." I suspect it is with others as well.

Do you want it fast, cheap *and* good? You will seldom get more that
two.
Good and fast, but not cheap. Fast and cheap but not good. Good and
cheap
but not fast.

Was it Samuel Clemments who said, "I would have written a shorter
letter,
but I did not have the time."

When people ask for my help and pay me $75./hour to write a report they
get
solid concise content, good form and correct spelling. When people  ask
for
my help pro bono, they usually are happy to take what they get, whatever
the
form or format.

If you check out my website you will probably find a few misspelled
words
there too. A few out of a half-a-million is not so bad in my book if the
content is solid and is actually helping people. More that 2000 a week
come
to my website for help and no one has ever commented on the spelling.

Hey, how would you like to be my copy editor? (just joking, this whole
message is just for fun, please take no offence, offence?, ofense?,
o'fence?)
--

John Leeke, Preservation Consultant

publisher:               Practical Restoration Reports
contributing editor: Old-House Journal
website:                  www.HistoricHomeWorks.com