Devil in the Details

The devil's in the details, or so the saying goes. When you're talking about grammar, spelling, and punctuation, that old idiom is especially true. Apparently it's a lesson that Paris Hilton needs to learn. The Wall Street Journal reports that she sparked outrage among Colombians recently when she tweeted that she had just landed in "Columbia," when she meant the nation of Colombia. This is an all too common mistake in the eyes of Colombians, and they're sick of celebrities like Paris, Justin Bieber, and Ozzy Osbourne misspelling their country's name. Corporations do it, too, and the Nixon Administration was guilty of the offense back in 1973. 

Now thousands of Colombians have joined a movement called "It's Colombia, NOT Columbia" to rid the world of this misspelling. They have t-shirts and, of course, social media to promote their cause.

So if you want to avoid the devil in the misspelling details, there are books out there to help you. A popular one is How to Spell like a Champ. If you need more than just help with spelling to improve your writing, the short ebook Grammar Without Tears was reviewed here last month, and you can try The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well.

Hopefully today's blog was written without too many grammatical mistakes, because that would be especially embarrassing. Happy writing!