by Angela Lansbury
I am responding to a letter I saw on Teletext which said that another writer was wasting time nit-picking over grammar when we had major financial problems to solve.
1 In times of financial crisis we need better-paid jobs. Recruitment companies use correct spelling to help select shortlist candidates, for jobs in IT, maths, security, secretarial, solicitors’ and government offices. In times of crisis you may be made redundant and need a job of any kind.
2 It’s only five per cent of the marks in your A level, O level or GCSE, but that can make a difference between top grade for the university of your choice. Five marks for correct spelling makes the difference between pass or fail - getting into any course at all.
3 Correct spelling tells me whether I have an email from my online bank or a scam from somebody who is unemployable and will take my money. Recognizing a mis-spelled company name saves me from scams sending viruses which crash my computer.
4 An inaccurately worded will means the money goes to the wrong person or so much as spent on legal fees contesting the will that nothing is left. Correct wording can save me tax and time.
5 Incorrect or unclear, or ambiguous instructions mean customers can set fire to the microwave, injure themselves with a reversing needle on a sewing machine, or sue your company so you lose time, money and jobs. Correct wording means instead of leaving my mobile phone untouched, or taking it back for a refund, I use it and recommend it. So the shop makes more money.
6 Easy to understand language sells me an Apple MacBook laptop at twice the price I would have paid for yet another machine using only Microsoft Word.
7 Accurate wording saves lives in court. Bentley was hanged because the words, ‘Let him have it,’ were judged by the jury to have instructed him to kill the policeman, not to hand over the gun.
8 A Japanese man approaching a house to ask the way was shot dead in the USA because he did not understand the householder’s instruction ‘Freeze!’ A life would have been saved if the householder had used the less slangy and ambiguous word, ‘Stop!’
9 Hospitals regularly kill people normal patients and those on experimental programmes who are given overdoses. This could be prevented if doctors and nurses double-checked the seemingly less important little things, handwriting which is readable, and the correct, safe maximum dose.
10 Lives are lost on motorways because people parking broken down cars on the hard shoulder are ploughed into. The drivers’ minds are on the major problem - getting the broken car started, and they forget minor details like setting up the warning triangle. If parents insist on children taking care of all the details, in a crisis children and later adults will continue to do so.
11 Regarding losing money, a dress shop can order ten times the number of dresses needed by specifying the numbers of each colour and style, but not specifying the total number of dresses. Ten times the number of ships - not checking the number of zeros. In the army you lose lives if you send ten times the number of troops, or one tenth, not tallying the boots, bullet-proof vests, weapons and vehicles to the number of troops. A British cheque requires the number of pounds paid to be written in numbers and letters.
12 Battles are lost and wars are started because of inaccurate telegrams. It is said that countless lives were lost, that WWII was started, because the Japanese misunderstood a ambiguously worded telegram which appeared to say Japan could go ahead with an invasion of another country and America would not intervene.
13 Sentences should always be positive. Especially in a crisis. For example, climbers are taught that when they see a falling boulder, they should not shout, 'Don't look up!' The other climber would instinctively look up, not hearing the negative. Instead use the positive and focus on what should be done. 'Look down!'
14 Similarly teachers should use positive instructions. I spent an hour in an Apple MacBook one to one lesson and lost all my work. As I went to save it the teacher started to say, 'Don't ...' I immediately moved my fingers from the 'save' icon to 'don't save' and lost everything. She should have said, 'Save it!'
(Citation needed. Can you help make this more accurate?)
