I like to think that I got a pretty good education. If nothing else, it was expensive. Between the Marine Military Academy and Texas A&M, I spent a lot of time writing papers and dissecting them. Since then I’ve written a handful of books (see the rest of this site) and I put that education to use regularly. But I miss a lot too.

Ms. Pickens and Mr. Christesson did a pretty good job of teaching me English. I could probably still diagram a sentence if I needed to. Though I’m certain that I violate at least one thing in Mr. C’s “F-list” every time I sit at a keyboard. His “F” list was a list of unbreakable rules (I can’t remember all of them), and if he found one of those violations in a paper you wrote for Senior English – it was an automatic F and he’d stop reading.

I believe using “I” was one of them, and the misuse of “that” was another. Overusing “THAT” is one of my biggest writing weaknesses.

I’m a halfway decent speller, but without spell check, I’d still miss so many mistakes that I’d look illiterate.

So today, I tip my hat to the squiggly red underline that shows up on my computer whenever I misspell a word. Thank you spell-check.

***A special bonus thank you to Miss Michelle Pickens – my English teacher in 8th, 9th and 11th grade and Mr. Charles Chistesson, my Senior English teacher. I use what you guys taught me every day and I apologize for it. 🙂