There are so many sign posts in town with 'wrong spelling' but I hardly critique any of those spelling mistakes because I was told sometime back by Mr Awunyo Akaba; my English Language tutor that some of those mistakes are by design. I loved that teacher. He was gentle, eloquent, fluent and sociable. My word! That man was a role model. I hate to compare him to any one else but let me try to cite this example. There was a short and loud mouthed tutor who was so full of himself he could insult anybody including his coleagues. I did not hate him even though he punished me to dig a pit then. While he was order in transit, Mr Awunyo was discipline in motion.
In an English Language class, my role model made students aware that it is not everything we read in the newspapers or on sign posts that can go for good English. Some are intentionally written wrongly whilst others are mistakes. He adviced students to read through their pieces and refer to dictionaries for correct spelling and use of words. I took this serious but the tedious part is the use of the dictionary. This probably explains why a lot of people spell words wrongly. 'Master' is now 'masa'; 'Alright' is now 'alryt'
There are lots more of such words that are mindfully or otherwise used wrongly. The use of shortcuts in acquiring life's goodies has become the order of the day in every sphere of life. The increase in the youth joining the drug trade and most recently the 'sakawa' trade testifies the impatient crop of youth in our society.
People have made one mistake or another and tried very hard to defend it or apologize for it. Once you spell a word wrongly, you have to correct the word. Imposing a wrong word and insisting it is the right word is in itself wrong. A wrong word is wrong. period! I am Dennis Oforri-Asiedu; how can anybody call me Ofosu-Asiedu and insist that is what he is comfortable with so it is my name? Please come again.
Nartey took his team to the Assembly for support but he was turned away for not voting in the assembly elections; a decision neither he nor his team/players influenced. Someone wrote that announcement that has now come out as a political blunder. A move that has led to a winner takes all situation. The wording of the announcement was wrong, the spelling of the words was also wrong. It should have read let's vote and fight on and NOT, let us not vote and fight on.
We have to revisit the statements and do the necessary corrections. We need to write without a lot of wrong spelling, 10% spelling mistakes at most. 1% wrong spelling by design. We want a clean sheet in 2012.
Any intentional spelling error that is not development bound should instantly be erazed and replaced with the right word. In this election year, words like boycott, should be avoided. Anytime a section of voters boycott an election, another section will go ahead to vote and their decision will bind on those who refused to vote. In the same light, if you make spelling mistakes and don't correct them, people will stop reading your articles after several correction efforts. A correction is a switch from negative to positive but the opposite may also be true so becareful what and how you correct.
Folks, Youth Parade is grateful for your immense contribution to the progress of this platform. Your comments after reading every piece is our motivation for the next piece. We are set up to 'build a strong youth through education' We will light up every dark corner of our society. Do you know any dark corner of our society that requires light? Let us know and we will light it up. Be part of the Youth Parade expansion. Write your comments on our pieces/articles and suggest topics you want us to tackle. Religious, social, environmental, transport, education, health, road or marriage/concunbinage. We at Youth Parade are well positioned to educate you on anything.
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