Satin Stitches, Ltd. | Designed For a Sensational Performance

© Deborah J. Nelson/Satin Stitches Ltd.

The inspiration for this blog was an email that I received a few days ago. A potential dance team customer was inquiring about a costume with SEQUENCING on it. Hmmm. In my world, SEQUENCES are when you do one thing after the other, in a particular order. The correct word is SEQUINS. I realize that not everyone’s SPELL-CHECK knows the correct term for those lovely little metallic or plastic discs that combine, oh…in a SEQUENCE to make a gorgeous, glitzy embellishment!

Here is a Sequence of Sequins

Do you get annoyed when people misspell your name or mispronounce it? Well, I do! This is sort of the same thing. Years ago, I began telling people that my name was Deb, when my name is really NOT Deb. It is Deborah, or if you are an old friend or member of my family, it is Debbie…or Mom. I simply prefer to have my not-quite-my name spelled CORRECTLY, rather than wince at, horror-of-all-horrors, seeing Debra or Debora or Debby or Debi. Eeeww! Or mispronouncing it as De-BORE-ah.

OK, my Fashion Instructor, back at art school (MCAD) called me a very, oh-so-French, Deb-eeee. It was the first time I felt my name had some sophistication and ooh-la-la, some exoticness to it! I am sure that many, if not MOST of you can relate, to wanting your name correct. I TRULY apologize to EVERYONE that I have butchered either the spelling or the pronunciation of your name! I feel your pain.

But, back to SEQUINS. Our worlds seem to be ruled by sub-par spell-check programs, either in our text programs or Online. How frustrating is it for you, to find those little squiggly red lines under your words? You click on them, only to be given no clues as to just what the CORRECT spelling of the word might be? Or, worse yet, your text program gives you a totally WRONG word that may be spelled right, but is just not write. Oh…make that RIGHT!

Case in point – SEQUINS versus SEQUENCE.

I admit, I only did OK in spelling class in school. For the life of me, some words I continually spell wrong. Lavender and calendar, I rarely get right. But supercalifragilisticexpialidocious I do pretty well with! NO, my spell-check did NOT help me with this one, but Google did!

In today’s world, we are getting very lazy with learning, comprehending, and remembering our spelling, with spell-check and of course, all the abbreviations and shortcuts that texting has given us.

I am a fan of dictionary.com to double-check my bad spelling and bad spell-checking, because I can double-check the meanings of the words. And inserting an apostrophe just doesn’t always work with hypertext, so I have to leave them out, which can be annoying. I suggest that we should ALWAYS try to proof read our spell-check when good grammar and accurate spelling is important. Do not put yourself at a disadvantage in your bios, resumes, blogs or any other Online or off-line newsletters that you might write, by using the incorrect words or bad spelling.

Try to catch any correction that someone might offer you. I smile when you email me about those SEQUENCES. But I frown when I reply with the CORRECT spelling and usage, only to have you turnaround and reply with the SAME mistake. It tells me that you think you are correct and disregard my knowledge of the subject, or you are lazy or uncaring about details.

So please, the next time that you email about SEQUENCING, make sure that you are talking about the progression of something. DO NOT mess with my SEQUINS!

Signed, Deb-eeee

And yes, I am holding my breath with my spelling in this blog!

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