Study of Spelling/Typographical errors

[ChrisGreaves]

A quick study of the Find and Replace values in a set of over 4,000 rules (essentially recordings of corrections made) indicates many sources of error. Amongst these can be seen:-
(1) We need to remove one superfluous character /appliacation/application/
(2) We need to swap two adjacent characters /serach/search/
(3) We need to substitute from a set of phonetically similar consonants /emphasise/emphasize/
(4) We need to replace a single character with one of the surrounding eight characters from the keyboard /cjaracter/ character/ (where the character “h” is surrounded by the eight characters “tyujmnbg”)
To this end we might analyze a set of rules to determine our most common fault.

Rules	Replace	Rule 1	Rule 2	Rule 3	Rule 4
4,294	2,551	447	262	51	300
	59%	18%	10%	2%	12%
						42%

4,294 rules were examined. These are from a rules table that has not been cleaned, so many rules are duplicates. That is, we will find some examples where Find=”search” and Replace =”search”.
• Of the 4294 rules, only 2,551 or 59% sported a replacement string, and hence were candidates for the study.
• Of the 2,551 find/replace rules, 447 or about 18% were of the type 1 error – superfluous character.
• Of the 2,551, 260 or about 10% were of the type 2 error – swapped characters.
• Of the 2,551, 51 or about 2% were of the type 3 error – homophonic characters.
• Of the 2,551, 300 or about 12% were of the type 4 error – slip-of-the-finger.

The "rules" contain overlap in the sense that one rule may exist for different folders. A single rule for a specific folder counts as one rule, although it my be applied thousands of times.

Cheers
Chris

[John Gray]

You are no doubt familiar with that well-known theatrical play device to explain part of the plot to the audience, where one character asks another, "Why are you telling us this?"...

[ChrisGreaves]

You are no doubt familiar with that well-known theatrical play device to explain part of the plot to the audience, where one character asks another, "Why are you telling us this?"...

Well, yes, indeed.
But for many a year I have pondered over this, that I am well-read, and consider myself to be a reasonably good speller, and yet my two-fingered typing is atrocious.

I was curious as to the sort of typographical errors I make.
Some of my errors are from the confusing field of Anglo/Aussie/Canadian/USA English, I know.

Too, I am curious about which times of day render me more susceptible to each type of error.
Cheers
Chris

P.S. Someone has posted that "Why are you telling us this?" is a typo, and that the original manuscript script read "Why are you selling us this?"