Dear Donald: Grab a Dictionary

Mr. Trump;

There's a few things on my mind this morning, and while for once I'm not deeply concerned about your bigotry, your hateful rhetoric, or your questionable policies, I am still somewhat concerned.

Why can't you spell?

As an English teacher, I am forever telling students—as well as my own kids—that proofreading matters, especially in today's world. If you proofread all work, you look brighter, and if you look brighter, ultimately, your boss looks brighter too.

There have been at least three relatively recent instances where you seemingly can't be bothered to double-check what you're actually saying before you post it. I get it; it's social media, and if nothing else, you've garnered a reputation for shooting from the hip and going off at the mouth.

That's no excuse, though, for making spelling mistakes that should have been ironed out of your writing patterns 60-plus years ago.

First there was #covfefe, an unfortunate error which led many to think that finally, you were demonstrating something of a sense of humor, particularly when you sent out a follow-up tweet asking people to find the definition of covfefe. The internet, of course, had a field day. If nothing else, sir, you know how to generate attention, and covfefe did it. The ensuing coverage wasn't all positive, but people were thinking that perhaps when you discovered the error, you finally decided to have some fun instead of rage-tweeting as you often seem to do.

It's your use of the word heel, however, that's starting to indicate to me, at the very least, that there might be a problem. I know you're incredibly busy, sir, and I know that you and your children and grandchildren will see far more money than I shall ever hope to see in my lifetime. However, the study of homophones—words that sound alike but are spelled differently with different meanings—is something that begins in the early elementary years. I'm talking Grade 3 at the earliest.

Yet in August, you originally posted, “Our great country has been divided for decades. Sometimes you need protest in order to heel [sic], & we will heal, & be stronger than ever before!” when discussing the tensions in Charlottesville. Someone must have told you about your spelling error, so you attempted to fix it—but reposted it with the same error.

Now, when discussing Texas, which is still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Harvey, you wrote, "Texas is heeling fast thanks to all the great men & women who have been working so hard."

Here's the thing. Teachers face an uphill battle as it is when trying to have students proofread anything, whether it's a letter or a résumé, and your continued insistence to not proofread your tweets is aggravating as anything. One thing that some teachers try to emphasize is the notion that employers like to see their employees take the time to ensure things are spelled appropriately as it indicates attention to detail, in addition to the all-important command of the English language.

I don't know if your adherence to posting typos is a result of arrogance, being hurried, or simply not caring, but the message being sent to the Twitterverse, as well as the "fake media" you have tweeted about endlessly, is that you don't have enough of a grasp on the English language to avoid a mistake that should have been ironed out when you were 10, at the latest. You obviously have a fair bit of intelligence; not only do you run a few large corporations, you made it to the highest office in the land. Whether society at large likes you in said position is another matter altogether, but sir, you need to start taking the time to actually proofread your posts.

The majority of society is looking at what you're writing, and it's not too far of a stretch to say that you're being judged. I realize that you will think it's unfair, but we all are judged on what we say and how we say it. Just because you are now the president does not mean that you are suddenly exempted from exercising proper grammatical conventions.