The Cupertino Effect

If you search the website of the United Nations, you’ll find a fascinating article on African-German Cupertino; in another article, you can read about peace education that stresses participation, problem solving and Cupertino.

Still have time on your hands?  Another search will bring you to an article on political, economic and trade Cupertino in the Balkans.

What is Cupertino, you ask?

Well, it’s a city in California.  But for our purposes, it’s proof that spell-check is not always correct.

You see, early versions of spell-check did not recognize the word “cooperation”; it only knew the word to be spelled with a hyphen: “co-operation”.  Like any misspelled word, spell check recommended alternative spellings, the first of which was the now famous town in California.  Inattentive writers (even in the UN!) frequently hit “change all” without proof reading the spell-check selection.

The lesson here?  Today is August 18th and the Common Application has been available for a few weeks. As you begin working on your essay, remember that spell-check is a handy tool but that your eyes and the eyes of a proofreader with perspective are the only way to make sure that your thoughts come across effectively.

Thank you for your Cupertino.

Andrew N. Carter

Associate Director of Admissions

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