I appreciate the fact that you printed part of my recent letter concerning the "Citizens for Common Sense" organization in the Nebo School District. However, you changed the spelling of the word "sluff" in my letter.
In our district, and I assume in the state, the term "sluff" is a technical term used to describe a student's missing class with no excuse from a parent. As such, it is spelled in all of our district literature "s-l-u-f-f."If you were printing a letter about computer software, you would not spell "byte" "b-i-t-e" simply because that is the general spelling of the word.
In changing the spelling, you changed the meaning of the word and made it appear as though I did not know the technical term. (I am sure the term originally derived from the verb "to slough," as in skin cells, but it is now spelled "sluff" in this sense.)
Beverly Burdett
Orem
Editor's note: The word "sluff" had its genesis as a mis-spelling of the word "slough" and is hardly a "technical term." The dictionary lists it as an expression used in the card game of bridge. However, since the word has acquired usage to describe unauthorized absence from school and is spelled "sluff" in school district documents, that spelling should not have been changed in the letter.