Online grammar

What is it about posting online that brings out the idiot in me (and roughly 500 million others) when it comes to spelling and grammar? While by no means a Hemingway, I consider myself a reasonably intelligent and coherent person.

Spelling was always an area where I excelled. I didn't miss a word in spelling until the fifth grade. In the sixth grade, I won the titanic spelling bee against my arch rival LaVerne Doebbert. By the way, the Free Online Dictionary spells the word archrival while the spellchecker in Blogger corrects that with arch rival. Take your pick.

When reading blog entries or comments the spelling and grammar mean something to me. An otherwise intelligent entry tends to be discounted if it is out of joint. I am not a heavy poster in forums, comments, or blogs, but I do notice that corrections after posting seem to be a way of life with me. So what are the possible reasons?

Overconfidence - yup. Even after correcting a number of words as I type, in the end there are usually a few that I miss.

Spellcheckers - maybe. I have for the most part not depended on them. Even knowing they are around is a crutch, though. And, the scoundrels, they don't even check the words I forget to type.

WYSIWYG - for sure. I grew up in the world of typewriters and carbon paper. If you typed in something wrong you either erased, tried to white-out, or started over. Of course any business letter was not a candidate for white-out or erasure, so I did a bunch of retyping. Now with the miracle of computing we are secure in the knowledge that any mistake can be easily corrected. Bingo. Practically guarantees sloppiness except in the most attentive.

I'll try to do better. But something tells me I'll make too or tree mistakes every once in a while.