quote:

Today Sam will plow through the city's rough boroughs in search of artisanal cookie dough, even though he ought to stay home to nurse his cough.

Thoughts about what is wrong with this sentence?

It would read better using 'plough' instead of 'plow'. That way there's another example of the multiple uses of '-ough'.

I can't see anything wrong with it, though.

Yeah, I suppose "wrong" isn't the right word. The article said, What is wrong with this picture? The sentence was highlighted to illusrate the spelling of seven words with "ough" and different pronunciations: Oo, Uhff, oh, oh, oh, aww, aww. In all fairness, at least with my accent, some of the pronunciations aren't different (they rhyme).

The article (can't link to the article because it was from the Chicago Tribune) was about the English Spelling Society. Stephen Linstead, the
head of the English Spelling Society, laments, "In some languages like Finnish, Spanish and Italian, there is a strong correlation between the written and spoken word, but English is on the entirely other side of the spectrum." Apparently studies in the UK have concluded that English-speaking children take significantly longer to learn basic literacy skills than children in other European countries. Linstead says the fault lies with spelling.

A group of experts in the UK and US propose an International English Spelling Congress to implement a spelling system that makes more sense. Shall we go?

You want to have congress with a bunch of old fuddy-duddies?

English spelling is mostly regular. Take these words I just made up

Flogrification
Sedrension
Mefricity
Emsercate (verb)
Permerize

I'm willing to bet that most literate speakers will agree on where the stress falls on these words and whether the vowels are long or short.

quote:

A group of experts in the UK and US propose an International English Spelling Congress to implement a spelling system that makes more sense. Shall we go?

Ah, something else for Pearson to sink their teeth into to raise UK/US PISA scores!

You are probably right, goofy. And, BTW, I love your made-up words. They seem so real to me. We have the bluffing game with a real word, but we make up fake meanings. I could see a game where we come up with a fake word and meaning.