# Incorrectly corrected **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 7, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154 "2005-10-07T06:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![wampeter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@wampeter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wampeter)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/41 "2005-10-08T07:39:35Z")
Mine are all from teachers: When I was in 5th grade, I designed a children’s magazine as part of a project in my school’s Gifted & Talented program. For the last page, I had put in a section entitled “Funny Fotos”, where kids would be able to send in funny pictures of themselves. I had stylized both 'f’s, too. My advisor laughed at me and said, “Photo is spelled with a ‘ph’, I can’t believe you made that mistake!” I tried to explain to her that it wasn’t a mistake, it was purposeful incorrect spelling to make it more quirky, as many publishers do. She insisted that I had obviously just spelled it incorrectly and just refused to accept I was wrong. Well, I DID refuse, because I wasn’t wrong! That same year, a different teacher (my actual classroom teacher, not the GT advisor) corrected a line in a children’s book entitled “The Day the Moose got Loose” I had written. My text was entirely made up of rhyming couplets (not the most imaginative, but I WAS only a 5th grader, and it WAS only a children’s book). I don’t remember it exactly, but the previous line had ended in the word “beat” and this line went “Clop, clop, clop went his feet.” My teacher corrected my copy to “Clop, clop, clop went his HOOVES,” because “moose don’t have feet!” She refused to accept the fact that a) she had RUINED the rhyme scheme of the ENTIRE book; and b) moose DO have feet, they just happen to have hooves on their feet! She then sent the pages off to be bound. I still have that book. It’s still ruined. One last one: When I was in 10th grade, I had to write a short autobiography for my honors English class. I thought I’d be clever and titled it “The Unauthorized Autobiography of Wampeter.” My English teacher said it didn’t make any sense. It was an autobiography, so essentially, I had to have authorized it. I told him that was the point - it was supposed to be FUNNY. He wouldn’t give up and insisted I change the title. I refused, and believe I got no less a grade for it. What makes me really angry about it, though, is that SEVERAL YEARS LATER the author of the “Series of Unfortunate Events” put out a book entitled “Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography.” Sure, HIS publishers realized it was gold! ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/42 "2005-10-08T07:43:41Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > I think I started to say something but somehow missed my chance, and found myself stuck in the pose of being a dumbass, after which it felt too late to backtrack. In retrospect I should have been able to laugh and explain what happened, but I had even less social pose back then than I do now. :wally That sounds like exactly what would happen to me in that situation 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/43 "2005-10-08T07:59:15Z")
> [@lorinada](#): > > She called the **Suglar Land** city offices! Guess what! They didn’t know how to spell their own city’s name! _[bolding mine]_ Paging **Gaudere** … 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/44 "2005-10-08T08:27:14Z")
> [@Gorgonzola](#): > > In 6th grade at Catholic elementary school, I watched my homeroom teacher, who was also our principal, who was also a drunk, print what he thought was the word “length” on the board in caps: L-E-N-G-H-T. > > I raised my hand. “Isn’t that supposed to be L-E-N-G-T-H?” I asked. > > He squinted at the board, then frowned at me mightily. “No,” he blustered, his face red and his wattles shaking, “That’s correct. L-E-N-G-H-T.” I declined to agree, so he brought in the school math teacher, a later-to-be-incarcerated paedophile (though sober), to make a big show of checking the spelling – in truth, to make a big show of embarrassing me. Both squinted at the board and frowned mightily at me. Then they agreed that the correct spelling was indeed L-E-N-G-H-T. > > Knowing I was beaten, I eventually just shook my head and stared at my desk. > > To this day, I will sometimes type or write “ht” in my first draft, especially if I’m thinking: “Don’t do it his way. Don’t.” How completely bizarre. Someone needs to make an arthouse film about that. ---
**Author:** ![zelie\_zelerton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/59ef9b/32.png) [@zelie\_zelerton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zelie_zelerton)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/45 "2005-10-08T12:29:36Z")
[hijack]the Google ads are ‘Religion: 7 Great Lies’, ‘The Field Center (how consciousness creates reality)’ and ‘S Jay Ohlshanksy (Estimating Human Longevity)’ I can understand how the first one relates but the others?? [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Lillith\_Fair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@Lillith\_Fair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lillith_Fair)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/46 "2005-10-08T12:38:35Z")
I was doing word processing out of my home and one of my customers was a lawyer in her own small practice. She was originally from another country. She wanted me to put in the address of a letter: Attorney John Smith, Esq. I tried to explain that it should either say Attorney or Esq., not both. She insisted I put both in, so I did it. It’s not like the other lawyer would ever know who I was. She really just wanted to show respect to the other lawyer, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/47 "2005-10-08T15:50:42Z")
> [@Lillith Fair](#): > > I was doing word processing out of my home and one of my customers was a lawyer in her own small practice. She was originally from another country. > > She wanted me to put in the address of a letter: > > Attorney John Smith, Esq. > > I tried to explain that it should either say Attorney or Esq., not both. She insisted I put both in, so I did it. It’s not like the other lawyer would ever know who I was. She really just wanted to show respect to the other lawyer, I guess. /hijack/ I throw up in my mouth every time I hear “attorney” used as a title. Maybe it’s legit (I honestly don’t know), but it still sounds very wrong to me. I don’t address our CFO as Accountant Jones and the dude in the service department at Volvo as Mechanic Svenson. I’ve also been told that “Esq.” is sexist (according to the Word Detective, “an ‘esquire’ was originally a young manservant,” and "With the passing of knights, “Esquire” came to be applied to any young man of “noble” birth who lacked a title, such as “Prince” or “Duke.”) in addition to being pretentious. When writing to another attorney, I address the letter to Mrs. or Mr. Whomever. /hijack/ ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/48 "2005-10-08T16:37:01Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > I still remember my grade 6 teacher telling me that there was no such ocean as the “[Southern Ocean](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ocean)”, it was the Antarctic Ocean. If you consider the International Hydrographic Organization the world’s authority on this, the decision to include the Southern Ocean was made in 2000. [This](http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/oo.html) cite explains its origin. So, if you were in 6th grade before the year 2000, you were technically wrong. The CIA article states the following: > [@](#): > > A decision by the International Hydrographic Organization in the spring of 2000 delimited a fifth world ocean - the Southern Ocean - from the southern portions of the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. The Southern Ocean extends from the coast of Antarctica north to 60 degrees south latitude, which coincides with the Antarctic Treaty Limit. The Southern Ocean is now the fourth largest of the world’s five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean, but larger than the Arctic Ocean). To quote the [About.com](http://About.com) article: > [@](#): > > For some time, those in geographic circles have debated whether there are four or five oceans on earth. > > Some consider the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific to be the world’s four oceans. Now, those that side with the number five can add the fifth ocean and call it the Southern Ocean or the Antarctic Ocean, thanks to the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). > > The IHO has attempted to settle that debate through a year 2000 publication by declaring, naming, and demarcating the Southern Ocean. The IHO published the third edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas (S-23), the global authority on the names and locations of seas and oceans, in 2000. The third edition in 2000 established the existence of the Southern Ocean as the fifth world ocean. > > There are 68 member countries of the IHO and membership is limited to non-landlocked countries. Twenty-eight countries responded to the IHO’s request for recommendations on what to do about the Southern Ocean. All responding members except Argentina agreed that the ocean surrounding Antarctica should be created and given a single name. Eighteen of the twenty-eight responding countries preferred calling the ocean the Southern Ocean over the alternative name Antarctic Ocean so the former is the one that was selected. ---
**Author:** ![Foaming\_Cleanser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Foaming\_Cleanser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foaming_Cleanser)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/49 "2005-10-08T17:06:20Z")
> [@Gorgonzola](#): > > Knowing I was beaten, I eventually just shook my head and stared at my desk. He later became vice president. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/50 "2005-10-08T19:30:01Z")
I vaguely recall being told that when water is heated to the boiling point, its molecules split into hydrogen and oxygen. It was, IIRC, a biology class, not a chemistry class. But still. Everyone in the class was either too ignorant or too lazy to correct her. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154/51 "2005-10-08T20:15:15Z")
Several years ago, I had a boss who loved to correct my word choices, even though he was wrong every single time! If I used the word “detrimental” he’d say “no, you mean ‘devastating’.” Another time I used the word “amenable” and he corrected it to “amiable.” This happened at least once a day. While he was still my boss I had to grind my teeth and agree. Thank goodness I don’t work for him anymore. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incorrectly-corrected/325154.md?page=2)