I consider the folowing, the “ultimate text” simply for the fact that I quickly realised that writing is a technology that starts in our minds and finds representation in a form that consumers can relate to. The following text was sent to me as email. I do not actually know the origin. I was shocked to realise that it really didn’t matter how the letters are placed as long as the first and last letters are right. It made me ask the questions, how do we consume text? How do we appreciate text? Do we actually read familiar text out of memory?
if yuo can raed tihs, you hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.
Can you raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.
Great post. I’ve seen similar readings before with the spelling similarly jumbled. It’s been a few years now, and it’s a great reminder of the power of our minds.
Cheers,
Joe
I’ve seen something like this previously, and I tried showing it to a few friends who do not speak English as a first language. They had considerably more trouble understanding it, particularly one friend (Japanese), who’s mother-tongue is not based on a roman letter alphabet.
Itensretnig suftf!
Brian
Thanks for the post! It’s been awhile since I have seen something like this! It’s amazing how our minds work!
Melanie
This makes me think that spelling is pretty arbitrary, and that there is more to a printed or displayed word than just the sum of its letters.
My spelling is atrocious – and I always had problems teaching spelling when I was an elementary teacher. Although, I have to say that spellcheck is improving my spelling. The correct spelling of a word is reinforced every time I correct something in my written work. I find that words I used to have problems with like ‘because’ are spelled correctly more often. So much for spellcheck making us dumb.