Three of My Favorite Word Choice Errors

Prior to the prevalence of computers, (misspelling was the most common writing error. But spellcheck solved that problem and, like so many of our best inventions, created a new one: the word choice error. Now, our greatest problem is having a computer choose our words for us and, occasionally, choose incorrectly. Here are three of my favorite irreverent errors.

1. Visitors to New Belgium will be submerged in the culture.

Submerged: to sink below or cover with water or another liquid. Thus, visitors to New Belgium may find themselves--as a student said recently--drunk inside a beer barrel. I contend that this is an incorrect substitution for a word like "immersed," which can mean both soaked in water and absorbed in a subject.

2. Pubic reason will take the place of the veil of ignorance in the real world and help individuals determine what is part of a comprehensive doctrine and what is an objective political conviction.

This is an error a friend of mine made throughout a paper for our government class on public reason and the theories of John Rawls. I can't imagine how many times my government professor giggled at the repeated misspelling and how it significantly altered my friend's argument.

3. We fail to be well educated on different aspects of food consummation like portion size, healthy cooking, caloric intake, and their impact on weight and overall health.  

Consummation: what traditionally happens after one is married, and while it may be done with food, we'd prefer if that were kept private. A more acceptable interaction with food involves the consumption of it.