English is a funny language, just don't blame anyone!

English, the universal language is a peculiar language. Change the
spelling and the meaning changes. A missing character in a word makes
a lot of difference. Seeing the damage caused, you are ‘spellbound.'
Especially when a ‘Show-cause Notice” becomes a “Showcase Notice' and
‘insulating material' turns out be an ‘insulting material'. Never
mind. You did not want to insult anyone. It was only a typographical
error, human error rather.

We frequently come across such errors. Our personality largely depends
on our style of communication. We can either make it or mar it. Error
slips in due to inattention while typing. Normally we are annoyed at a
spelling mistake, sometimes error trigger off ripples of laughter too
, and there we are, laughing our heads off at our own mistakes.
Let us now talk of the errors by typists. Years and years of typing
drafts and further re-typing make their job monotonous. And, typing
becomes a reflex action. Here is a scientific fact in their favour.
Reflex actions or routine operations in a living creature can be
handled by low-level mechanisms that do not involve thinking in the
central brain. The reflex comes to work especially after the lunch
hour. That is precisely when a ‘Turnkey Project' becomes a “Turkey
Project” and a ‘Pump house' changes to ‘Pump hose,' and the ‘world' is
 almost reduced to a ‘word.'

The story of stenos is quite different. A lot depends on the
pronunciation of the boss, noise pollution around, etc. And above all,
the logic of the steno is transcribing her shorthand scribbling. For a
sleepy steno, most of the project would be ‘sleeping' (slipping),
salient features of a machine are ‘silent' and the most ideal manpower
is the ‘most idle'.

The problem assumes greater dimensions when similar syllables appear
in the dictation. Sometimes, 5 MT bullets go empty, the Sole
Distributor is a Soul Distributor, peace is always in pieces and pray
falls a prey. What is more, the Indore Office may become an indoor
office.

It would be an injustice if there is no mention made of the printer's
devil. The circumstances under which printing errors occur are no
different. The difference lies in the publicity they receive.
In a rare case, an error was really a terror. Just think of the
laboratory in-charge, who was sent a sample of contaminated kerosene
and asked to ‘taste' it. If he did what the letter asked him to do, it
was his own fault. He was merely asked to ‘test' it.

By keeping strict vigil, the number of errors in our communication can
be greatly minimised. But you can never reduce it to zero. After all…
to err is human.

Contributed by: ENGLISH TEAM