This is an interesting article from the June 23, 2018 Sunday New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/insider/mexico-world-cup-spanish-accent-marks.html

Paulina Chavira, an editor at The New York Times en Español in the Mexico City bureau, lobbied to have proper accents added to the jerseys of the Mexican National soccer (fútbol) team. The lack of accent, the article clarifies, is akin to a spelling error.

"A simple accent may seem trivial for a lot of people, but its presence or its absence changes the way we pronounce a word, and sometimes even its meaning," Chavira is quoted as saying.

Indeed, if we are as dedicated as we say we are to representing people as they wish to be represented - such as using a person's pronoun of choice - shouldn't it be just as important to be certain we're spelling that person's name correctly? It's a small change, but it can make a big difference to someone.

What is Word Nerd? Fair question.

This is the area of Red Pen Editorial Services where we will discuss, debate, ponder, rant and generally nerd out about all things related to grammar, linguistics, writing, editing and, you know, words.

There's no required rhyme or reason here. Sometimes we'll talk about great books for writers (or just books in general). Sometimes we'll chat about homophones or Oxford commas. We'll highlight some working writers who are setting a great example. We'll almost definitely engage in some good old-fashioned grammar shaming (I'm looking at you, people who use apostrophes to pluralize words), and we might even play some games.

If that sounds fun to you, you are officially a Word Nerd, or well on your way to becoming one. If not, well ... don't worry. You'll come around.