To multiply one quaternion by another, look at the row for the first quaternion and the column for the second quaternion. For example, to multiply i by j, look in the row for i and the column for j to find that the answer is k. To multiply j by i, look in the row for j and the column for i to find that the answer is -k.
As you can see from the above examples, the quaternions are not commutative -- that is, there are some a and b for which a * b != b * a. However they are associative -- for any a, b, and c, it's true that a * (b * c) = (a * b) * c.
Negative signs before quaternions work as they normally do -- for any quaternions a and b, it's true that -a * -b = a * b, and -a * b = a * -b = -(a * b).
You want to argue that your misspelling was equivalent to the correct spelling ijk by showing that you can split your string of is, js, and ks in two places, forming three substrings, such that the leftmost substring reduces (under quaternion multiplication) to i, the middle substring reduces to j, and the right substring reduces to k. (For example, jij would be interpreted as j * i * j; j * i is -k, and -k * j is i, so jij reduces to i.) If this is possible, you will get your point back. Can you find a way to do it?