As long as we are destroying word illusions this week with Toxic Words on Monday and the meaning of peruse on Wednesday, I thought we’d tackle something else that has been a pet peeve of mine for quite a while.

You’ve probably seen that familiar paragraph attributed to Cambridge University that says that as long as you keep the first and last letters of words in the correct places, you can switch around the letters and still read the paragraph.  Here’s a screen shot:

Well, there is more to it than it first appears.  Check out this YouTube video of the Brother’s Winn from What You Ought to Know:

Now that they have burst your bubble on this little parlor trick, I’d like to invite you to think about something else.  Even if this did work for all words, does it really mean spelling doesn’t matter?  Um…no!  Spelling DOES matter and for more than just your resume, Word Snobs and Grammar Nazis.  Spelling matters for clarity.  Think about how difficult it would be to read an entire email, letter or book this way.

Lastly, I invite you to think about this: effective communication demands that you “dno’t mkae yuor raeders wrok so hrad” in order to understand you…or they WON’T!

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