What’s the worst that could happen if you don’t proofread?

It can get you in trouble with your boyfriend…

It can make you sound like a terrorist

Or a murderer

Or just massively unintelligent

Spell CheckerEye halve a spelling chequerIt came with my pea seaIt plainly marques for my revueMiss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a wordAnd weight four it two sayWeather eye am wrong oar writeIt shows me strait a weigh.

As swoon as a mist ache is maidIt nose bee fore two longAnd eye can put the error riteIts rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw itI am shore your pleased two noIts letter perfect awl the weighMy chequer tolled me sew.

But Ms. Vroom, these are just mistakes due to technology. Real people wouldn’t ever make such

terrible mistakes in trying to convey meaning, right?

I recently saw this on a sign at a burger restaurant in Nashville: We don't just serve hamburgers, we serve people.

One might find the following sign in a residential neighborhood: "Slow children at play."

Other silly signs

• In a New York restaurant: Customers who consider our waitresses uncivil ought to see the manager.

• In the window of a Kentucky appliance store: Don't kill your wife. Let our washing machine do the dirty work.

• In the window of an Oregon store: Why go elsewhere and be cheated when you can come here?

Poorly Worded Ads• Lost: small apricot poodle. Reward. Neutered.

Like one of the family.• Dinner Special -- Turkey $2.35; Chicken or Beef

$2.25; Children $2.00.• For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with

thick legs and large drawers.• Four-poster bed, 101 years old. Perfect for

antique lover.• Now is your chance to have your ears pierced

and get an extra pair to take home, too.

Ok fine, but as long as you get the right words in there, punctuation

doesn’t matter.

Or does it?

Punctuate the following sentence:

A woman without her man is nothing.

Men might write it like this:A woman, without her man, is nothing.

But women will always prefer it this way:A woman: without her, man is nothing.

Letter Activity

The punctuation has disappeared from this letter. Find a partner and see if the two of you can fix it so that its recipient will understand the intended message.

Dear John…

Dear John: I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me be yours? Gloria

Or is it this way?

Dear John: I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours, Gloria