Oh, What a Difference a Letter Makes!

This writing business is not as easy as it looks. For example, I asked my six year old son, a first grader, why he thought he got a C on last week's spelling test when he got A's on the two previous tests. He answered quickly and confidently, "These words had more letters!" Sure enough, the little man was right. On the last two spelling tests, most of the words were three letter words. On the most recent test, most were four letter words (the good kind, not the bad kind). That's a 25% increase in difficulty. One letter sure can make a difference.

That got me thinking about other situations in which one letter changed everything.

I worked with a grant writer once who missed something critical in the proofreading process and sent out a grant with this in the first line of the narrative (name changed to protect the angry client): "XYZ Pubic School District....". My guess is that he would have given just about anything for a strategically placed "L."

When I was a freshman in college I was helping my mother and stepfather move to a different house. My task was to pack up the kitchen and clearly label the boxes with the word "kitchen" and a brief description of the contents of each box. Easy enough. I completed my task as assigned and the boxes were all moved. The next day, at the new house, we were unpacking and I heard my stepfather laugh loudly and exclaim, "What the heck (he didn't say 'heck' but this is a PG blog) is in this box?"

My mother and I hurried into the kitchen to see him standing there with a box that said "kitchen" on one side and "bowels" on the other.

Breakfast was never the same again.

See? One letter can make a big difference.


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Read more A Writer's Journey.


Other posts that may interest you:


An Open Letter to Teachers

If You Can Read This, Be Grateful - Literacy is Not Universal

A Life in 140 Words or Less

My Email In-Box

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For thoughts and tips on grant writing, try The Grant Goddess Speaks.