Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Does misspelling words for the sake of bad English improve the immersion or distract the reader?

It will probably distract quite a few people I would certainly be distracted by this and search for the words the author really meant, probably without even realizing that this is intentional. M...

posted 6y ago by Secespitus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T23:01:18Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31078
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T07:14:14Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31078
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T07:14:14Z (over 4 years ago)
### It will probably distract quite a few people

I would certainly be distracted by this and search for the words the author really meant, probably without even realizing that this is intentional.

Most authors will use the grossly misspelled words and similar techniques to show the reader that it's intentional. This also emphasizes the problems with the language.

Many people will not even catch every single mini-mistake you place in your text and they might even only realize it after being through half the book. Humans normally don't read every single letter of every single word. We are used to reading fluently and our brain will often just correct minor mistakes if we are not specifically searching for them. Espeially when doing some light reading your readers will probably not dedicate so much attention to everything and will skip over quite a few small typos.

But those that realize will be distracted by it. They will search for the right word because they think that the author just had a typo or that they are misinterpreting the meaning of the used word. And then they find the next typo and they have to re-read the sentence with the correct word in mind.

You might want to mix the two versions if you are bent on using this - you could for example start with obvious mistakes and let your characters point them out, but then switch to another character and let someone point out to the reader that this person "is quite good and only makes minor mistakes". This way everyone will get it and people won't be so distracted, because someone told them "he typically confuses he and she" or whatever you want to use in your text.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-10-26T15:13:31Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 1