I should not seek employment as a journalist. I would probably not make a good judge in a spelling bee either.

Thanks, Janesvillean.

Jester and Guardian: Thanks for the chuckles.

mjb: If you're only seeing one mistake a week, you should read more. I'm sure Pat Burkhard rolls in her grave too often. She was the last editor here who focused almost exclusively on proofreading and let offenders know, in no uncertain terms, about transgressions. She retired in 1993. Now, editors edit stories, sometimes help write them, build pages on computers and perform a whole host of other duties (blog?). Focus on proofreading, unfortunately, suffers as newspapers cut staff and demand more of those workers who remain.

Sure, we all make mistakes. I've made a few on my blogs in the past few months but try to remember spellcheck before posting them. I even noticed three errors on one of my blogs last week from someone who claimed to be a teacher.

But all of us--readers and journalists--should continue trying to improve ourselves. No matter the person, it reduces your credibility when you write something full of errors.

I encouraged my readers to take this test for the challenge and fun of it.

Greg

Guardians - Dido. (It's actually "ditto").

CourtJester - Too funny!

I agree, Napalm, that language has suffered over the years...much in during recent times. I blame a fair amount of the language's decline on the abbreviated writing we all do online. (Far too much "r u going 2" type spelling...if that is what some call it.)
*
However, just as people from 200 years ago would likely be unable to decipher our English of today, we do not fare so well with the English of yesteryear either. How many people groan at the thought of reading Shakespeare or even the writings of Thomas Payne?
*
Language evolves just as those who use it.

The number one spelling mistake on the Gazette comment section may be "loose" when they mean "lose".

For example "Loose the attitude ya big looser"

A bit humbling to miss 7 of 27.

Good way to humble up the spelling and grammar cops among us! Spell checking software doesn't always catch things either, like everything else Microsoft, there are holes in the software you can drive a bus through. Thanks for the chuckle-

wesgonsin, it's a blog. That means Peck gets to write about anything he finds interesting, and judging by the comments, others find it interesting too. Nobody made you click in here.

"Newswriting 101", he says. What went wrong? Are they paying this guy by the word, or what? To post his own opinions? Lets get back to cold, hard journalism. This artsy/craftsy attempt at writing reminds me of an Elementary School newsletter.

Thanks for fessin up Mr. Gardian, your a honest man and their has been alot of discusshun about which naybur dented are dubblewide.

What I found difficult about the test was once I saw it spelled all those ways, I became totally confused. When I just glanced at the word I was to spell (without "studying" the spellings), and then wrote it down on a sheet of paper without thinking, I would usually get it right. Those "teasers" or "distracters" will get you every time; you start second guessing yourself too much!

Exsellint werk Jester. Its time to teech thos smart aliky speelin polees a thing or too.

As for myself, I disregard posts where the use of there/their and to/too are incorrect.

I wouldn't expect everyone to get sphygmomanometer correct, but if someone cannot get THEIR there right, are they really understanding what they read?

For example: Last week, my naybur and me has to walk down to the libary to checkout some audio books on Nascar racin. We has to walk cuz we both lost our licensis. My naybur jus got his fith DUI last week when he hit his mother inlaws car into the nayburs trailer across the driveway, then nicked another on the way out the trailer park to the liker store to. The police was really mad, cause they had to get out of there car. They dont like to get out of there car for anything.

Let me forword this by saying before I procede, that any intentional misspelling may be inadvartent, is seperate and superceeds any future misspellings. Also for the sake of arguemint, let's just say that there's a general consenssus that a majority of comment posters are members of a spelling judgmant committee. Their comitment to this endeavour is nonetheless dependunt upon their desire to embaras others and to receive some sort of acknowlegement or lisense to haras others. This is evidenced on ocasion or occurrance, when not having something to say directly related to the topic, the need to bash spelling, which they claim as their either their perogitive or privelige. They feel this service they provide is indispensabel and apparently belies their core beliefs or existance, thus the need for such persaverence acting as a liason for said spelling committee. I withold my name because I am an anonymous poster, and as a weird way of jamming it in, figure it's deductabel.

The funny thing about irony..., is well, irony... Nice work GP...

I believe that the Gazette may want to invest in a spell checker and a grammer checker AND a second pair of eyes to proof read... usually every week at least once there is a very obivious mistake made. I don't think this "problem" needs to be addressed to the general public. Nobody is perfect

Greg, let me explain it to you. First of all, you guys at the Gazette think we believe in conspiracy theory...we do. And now you want us to spell correctly...we don't...and won't. Thats why we have self imposed spelling police monitoring our posts. What next, unreasonable expectations for for proper diction and grammer? Next thing I expect you will disable the caps key and the vast majority of us will not be able to truly express ourselves. Puuulleaasse spare me from those lofty expectations. YOU GUYS AT THE GAZETTE JUST DON'T GET IT!

I know I'm not the best speller. As a result, I use Firefox, which has a built in spell checker for form fields just like this one.