According to spellr.us, one of every six web pages of the world’s top universities has at least one genuine spelling error. Some of the mistakes are obscure misspellings. Others are obvious and embarrassing. But any mistake on a university website suggests that perhaps the institution should offer remedial spelling courses (or that no one is proofing the pages).
The company, which sells a service that scans websites for mistakes, checked the first 1000 pages of the world’s top (based on THE-QS World University Rankings) 20 universities.
McGill University (Montreal, Canada) had the fewest errors (34) and Duke University (Durham, NC) had the most (300). The top 5 misspelled words on the websites were “accommodation,” “technology,” “university,” harassment,” and “research.”
Here are some examples of those embarrassing mistakes. They were still there as of this afternoon. Hopefully by the time you click on the links to the offending pages, the universities will have cleaned them up.
The Harvard University’s (ranked #1) Law School didn’t know how to spell ‘professors.’
Yale University (#2) had a problem with ‘university.’
And Cambridge (#3) had a problem with ’service.’
Each of those three is obviously the result of carelessness. Those are not hard words. But neither are most of the top 10 misspelled words on university websites based on that recent check.
How did we do?
Well. Uh. Okay, yes, I did find a few misspelled words after taking advantage of the company’s offer to scan this site. They suggested there was 1 ‘likely’ error (one I could not find where they said it was), 78 ‘possible’ errors and 952 ‘unlikely’ errors. I agree that 3 of the words they found were misspelled. Perhaps some of the others are mistakes – at least in Australia where the company is located. Many are proper names or are matters of preference. For example, do you spell it ‘grand kids’ (their preference) or ‘grandkids’ (my preference)?
Scanning a website for misspelled words is undoubtedly a valuable service – one that maybe Harvard, Yale and Cambridge should avail themselves of.
But I did not like their approach from a business perspective.
When you go their website, you’ll see this offer:
But after their scan you’ll get a list of only first nine errors (assuming you have that many positive and possible errors). In my case their scan identified 1 ‘likely’ error (the one I could not find on this site), 78 ‘possible’ errors and 952 ‘unlikely’ errors. In that first 9 errors, I couldn’t find the ‘likely’ error and found only 1 of the 8 ‘possible’ errors that I agreed with.
After the first 9 errors, you’ll see this statement:
Then you’ll see another list of 20 errors (’possible’ errors in my case). I agreed with only 2 of them. After that list you’ll then see this…
I don’t mind them charging something – but not after they say “instantly spell check first 100 pages FREE.” Maybe what they mean is that they’ll check those 100 pages free but they won’t give you the results free?
If you happen to see any misspelled words that either I or that scan by spellr.us missed, do me a favor and email me. Okay?
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Spelling errors and other such mistakes are inevitable. I always use the example of the oldest continually published book, The Bible. You would think that after this many years, you would end up with the perfect document, but errors are introduced all of the time. Add to this that the bible is supposed to be the word of God, you would think he could correct this type of thing. Bottom line, we are human and we make errors. Errors make us look silly and unprofessional. Do I judge a spelling mistake harsher from a Tech Writer than a Computer Programmer, yes! Is that mistake the end of the world, No!
As a legal document production expert it is my business to ensure that there are no “spelling errors” in the documents that we produce, but having said that I too have fallen into the trap of rushing through a project and have made my fair share of “typographical errors” not “spelling errors”. There is a difference. Unfortunately many people believe that they can catch their own typos or that spell check fixes everything but this is not true. In our office we have a simple rule…nothing goes out without at least two sets of eyes having reviewed it (except for this reply…I hope it’s perfect!!!)
This isn’t surprising to me at all. When you think about it, who is really making these sites?the answer is: usually low-wage undergrads who generally aren’t majoring in technology or English. Not to mention that all content is hand-typed so typing errors also enter the mix. I think that it is fair to say that at any university, content is not edited by the scholars/experts. Columbia isn’t going to have the English Dept Chair edit web content. They are going to have a stressed/busy/over-worked/under-paid student do it.
I agree… most of those are typos, not spelling errors. But still good to catch.
I hate to sponsor websites that are so deceptive. Reminds me of a local fruit stand with a big sign “Cherries $1/box” and you see the table covered in these good sized boxes, at least 2 pints. So you think “hey, that’s a good price. I want some.” Then when you stop in…there, nestled in the middle of the big boxes are teeny little half pint boxes. Those are the $1 boxes. I bought the $1 box of Rainier cherries and haven’t been back.
There are spelling errors all over the web. Some of my favorites are on resume writing websites (I found 4 errors on bestemploymentservice.com without looking very hard). It is scary but true that even our most highly esteemed educational institutions manage to miss a few errors.