ALWAYS ON
Thursday, February 23, 2023
When writing or doing anything on my computers – there is one consistent, every day, on both laptops and the desktop, first things open and kept there all the time … two tools.
I always have the Merriam-Webster APP open and the Grammarly APP, too – so I’m ready to check quickly and edit with tools that speed the writing and polishing process. I write in Microsoft word, so those spell-check flags/highlights, together with my highlights/tips from Grammarly, guide me to steer between the ditches of proper word usage and grammatical pitfalls while trying to make a point with cogent thoughts that spill more easily off the tongue …
Whether I’m plodding or the keystrokes are flying as I rush toward a deadline, they warn of misspelled sentences that need untangling and spelling/typo errors …
And too often, too much extra advice.
One such warning pops up too often – that causes me to snort or laugh, not wanting to write about it, and this warning is one I’ve seen pop up many times before.
But …
The other day it stopped me long enough to question their well-regarded writer-helper capabilities – when Grammarly highlighted a word it (A.I. in actions), I might consider changing.
Reminiscent of a grade school teacher’s red-pencilled markings that drew attention to my mistakes, the kind you hate, but in this case, my reaction was, “NO.”
No need to change.
The word was acumen.
Not, in my view, a rare or hard-to-comprehend word, and sometimes pausing to consider if I’ve made the best choice is one of the reasons I use the tool – it helps me to ensure I am as clear as I desire to be in describing something.
Isn’t the purpose of good communication to tell others what we think, believe, and want to convey to them and ask for what we need from them?
And they need to tell us, too, in return. That’s my everyday understanding, which I think is common among my contemporaries.
Here’s the Grammarly comment as it highlighted acumen, suggesting that I consider using insight instead:
“Even a knowledgeable audience may be unfamiliar with the word acumen.”
Really?
I’m not high-faluttin’, high-brow, or arrogant, and I don’t try to speak or write, implying I am a language snob or expert, but really, acumen?
I think when we use, and I love them, APPS and tools to make our life, work and communication more straightforward, the goal should not be to go for the lowest common denominator, to dumb something down so everyone can understand it without having to look up a word.
If we aim higher, not lower, isn’t that better?