Fast Typing Word Salad

I mentioned the term “word salad” before on this blog, and said that I often have a slip of the tongue when I’m yakking away a mile a minute. I first heard my sister use this term and it has really stayed with me, mostly because I am so guilty of it. But I’m also guilty of typing too fast for my brain, which results in a similar condition to word salad. I like to call it “fast typing word salad.” You might have a better name for it, and if you do I hope you’ll share it with me.

Typing too fast for your brain simply means you are typing at a different speed than you are thinking. So when you mean to say one thing, you say a similar word instead. Or perhaps you skip a word altogether. I am guilty of it on this blog especially. When I’m writing for clients, I go over my writing with a fine tooth comb. Here? I try…. but it isn’t the same.

I know you all have seen some of my slip ups. I thought I’d share some recent ones that really made me look like an idiot. Sadly, I’m not making these up:

• In an email, I wanted to tell my sister that I was doing some prayer and meditation in the mornings, which really seemed to center me. I typed my message, hit send, and a couple minutes later got this message from my sister, “Hahahaha!  You are such a blessing to me!  You make me laugh.  Look at what you wrote.”

  When I re-read my words what I had actually said was “prayer and medication.”  Yeah, I suppose that would center me, too.

Recently on Angela England’s fabulous blog she talked about the importance of hub pages.  I left a comment on that, asking about “hug” pages, not hub pages.  To clarify, this is a hubpage type of article, this is an article on Hubpages, and this is a hub page on a blog.  Clicking these links will give you information but you will not get a hug.
• In an email (again, email!) to my friend Michelle I was yakking about eating too much during dinner and meant to say I “ate like a pig” when instead I wrote “hate like a pig.” To which Michelle asked me why I had to hate on the pigs like that! What do I have against the pig? (I should answer that…. I really don’t have anything against the pig. He has, perhaps, a bit too much fat on him. Then again, don’t we all?)

The moral of this story? Proofread, people. Especially if you’re a fast typer. Proofread.