Is spelling a lost art?

[eliza61]

I've noticed on these boards way more than others, that people get really upset over misspelled (that's correct, I checked the dictionary) words.

Full disclosure: I am a notoriously bad speller.

Nowadays though, is spelling a lost art. I think I'm a fairly intelligent person (Chemist). I have tons of friends who are doctors and make spelling errors. Philadelphia Judge in the family who admits to having horrible spelling (he says he has clerks to write briefs) so spelling is definitely not a dependable indication of intelligence.

Now with spell check and text messaging, where you don't even spell the entire work, is spelling a lost art? and why does it get people so upset? I can't tell you the number of posters who feel the need to go totally OT in order to correct someone's (where does the apostrophe go)spelling.

 

[golfgal]

I think so. It gets worse every year. I am a horrible speller but with the Google tools bar comes spellcheck and I use it. I usually ignore the occasional misspelling and write it off to a typing error but when people constantly use the wrong spelling for things it is obvious they don't know any better. One I see here a lot is "a lot" spelled alot, allot and other ways.

I see it also on other message boards and what really frustrates me is when people will call someone on that and the person will respond that it doesn't matter what they do on a message board. My thinking is that if you type that way on a message board, you probably type that way in papers as well. It is especially frustrating when those types of comments are on education boards asking why they aren't doing better in school.

 

[Christine]

I think it's dying.

I was a notoriously good speller through school and in my earlier jobs where I had to do a lot of writing. I rarely had to look up a word to figure out how to spell it. It just seemed like something that came natural to me. I just had a "feel" for how words are spelled.

I've been in a job for 20 years where I do very little writing. My spelling has definitely suffered and I have to really think about how to spell the harder words. Just yesterday my DH called me to ask me how to spell "aesthetic." I couldn't do it. I had to look it up. That really bummed me out.

I still don't use spell check on most things though. I really should because while I don't necessarily spell things wrong, I type them incorrectly. Or when I'm on a message board or e-mail, my crafting of the text is much more rushed and free-flowing. I can make a lot of stupid mistakes.

 

[LoraJ]

I love that Firefox has a built-in spellchecker. If I post on a break while at work, we use IE and I always catch typos and bad spelling later. I do try and correct it, unless I have already been quoted. I think I have picked up some bad spelling habits from message board postings. I try and use dictionary.com as much as possible.

The worst I have seen is from teens. Not only here but elsewhere. They type like they are texting. I have seen many adults ask them to please write a proper sentence and the teen is usually defiant and tells them no. I really do wonder how they will function in college or in the workplace with that attitude.

 

[1stluvispooh]

If it's a lost art. I never had it!!!!!!!1

 

[John VN]

I don't think it is a lost art, rather a non concern. Same with speach, punctuation and sentence structure.

Many years ago we were taught to always put others in front of us whether speaking or writing.

My wife and I ...... not me and my wife ......

Guess I am just an old phart whose not always write.

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

I blame my Grandfather for my spelling challenges... British spelling (he learned English from the British) overlaid on French? I didn't stand a chance! LOL.

I did try and was pretty good! Now, without spellcheck I'm hopeless.

One other oddity I've noticed. I know the difference thankyouverymuch between, where and wear and were; there and they're and their; lose and loose; two and to and too; do and dew and due; ect. However, I consistently find myself making errors when posting! S'UP with THAT?

 

[Christine]

I
One other oddity I've noticed. I know the difference thankyouverymuch between, where and wear and were; there and they're and their; lose and loose; two and to and too; do and dew and due; ect. However, I consistently find myself making errors when posting! S'UP with THAT?

I have this same issue. I definitely know the difference but when I'm typing fast, especially on a message board, it's like there is a disconnect between my brain and fingers. My fingers seem to go opposite of what my head knows is correct. It really bugs me.

 

[Sparx]

I think the reason people get upset over spelling errors here is because your writing is all we have. I don't know you. I don't know you're a chemist or a doctor or a veterinarian or a cashier at walmart. All I know is what you provide in your post. I have to form an opinion and a response to you based on all that you give us in a paragraph or two of posting. Grammar is important when the written word is all you have.

 

[NC State]

If it's a lost art. I never had it!!!!!!!1

Me too!

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

Sparx, I agree for the most part. When the form of communication is completely isolated to the written word, spelling, punctuation, grammar and white space become quite important don't they?

When there is a significant absence of all the above, I simply skip the posted communication and move on. I don't think anyone at all really minds that I do, either! :lol:

 

[GeorgeG]

It can be pretty bad on these boards, but trying to understand Facebook is like reading a different language. With all the new texting "shorthand," old folks like me don't stand a chance, but even when they try to write real words they make a mess of spelling and grammar. It also shows up in verbal communication.

Basic skills (reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic) have been lost for quite some time and I would have to blame technology for some of that. Things like spell check take the brainwork out of writing just like cash registers that tell cashiers how much change to give. Now, if life could just revolve around careers in texting and playing video games, the younger generation would have it all over the older generations... at least until they injure their thumbs.

 

[IDoDis]

There have always been terrible spellers. Maybe it's just more noticeable on message boards because everything is typed vs having a spoken conversation. I've been teaching for 18 years and I don't think the kids or parents spell any worse now than they did 18 years ago. It's never been great.

Yesterday my assistant was grading the spelling tests. She said, "Everyone did great!" After the kids left, I looked over their papers. Almost every paper had spelling errors on it that my assistant didn't catch. On one paper there were four words wrong that my assistant thought were correct. These were words mostly at 2nd and 3rd grade levels (there were at least 3 lists of words based on the reading levels of the students). She was in a hurry to grade the papers, so some of the grading errors occurred for that reason. But there were also some words like "shriek" that she didn't know how to spell.

I've learned by studying orthography in school that good spellers are naturally good spellers and bad spellers and not because they studied their spelling words. Most people who are good spellers are so because their brain remembers word spellings just by reading those words in a book. The brain takes a mental image of the word. Other brains don't work that way. Take for example a word that most people have read, but have never written themselves. A word they've seen in print like a well-known person's name, but with an uncommon spelling. When asked to write that person's name, the good spellers were able to spell the name, even though there was no phonetic basis to the spelling and even though they had never ever written the word before (but had seen it in print several times). The people who were not considered good spellers, had a more difficult time with spelling the name and were not able to spell it correctly because their brain had not taken a mental image of of the word.

I remember learning this sometime during the Gulf War. The name with the unusual spelling that the teachers were asked to write was "Norman Schwarzkopf." His name had been seen in the newspapers over and over again, but no one in the room had ever written his last name and had never been asked to write it. The good spellers in the room were able to spell it correctly, while the poor spellers weren't even close.

 

[Sparx]

It can be pretty bad on these boards, but trying to understand Facebook is like reading a different language. With all the new texting "shorthand," old folks like me don't stand a chance, but even when they try to write real words they make a mess of spelling and grammar. It also shows up in verbal communication.

Basic skills (reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic) have been lost for quite some time and I would have to blame technology for some of that. Things like spell check take the brainwork out of writing just like cash registers that tell cashiers how much change to give. Now, if life could just revolve around careers in texting and playing video games, the younger generation would have it all over the older generations... at least until they injure their thumbs.

I've unfriended people because of the way they write their status updates before! I just looked her up for a sample, I cannot do it justice. This is a direct quote:

::.S0METHiNG iS KEEPiN MEH UP RiTE N0W && i JUSz CANT EXPLAiN WHAT!! THiNK iM TAKiN MY 0WN ADViCE 0N DiS 0NE =( G00DNiTE SWEETiEz!!

 

[iwrbnd]

I used to be the best spellar! I was a spelling/grammatical snob! I remember circling all the mistakes in my friend's wedding bulletin during her wedding! But, now that I've been out of school since the 90's I've gotten really bad! I finally have sympathy for those who can't spell!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I spell pretty well. But I have lots of typos. I "trained' myself to "auto-correct" as I go along, but sometimes I miss my typos. There are words that I'm a bit...puzzled on their spelling and will sometimes change how I say it if I can.

There was one word that I got mocked on (here) for the longest time. I cannot remember what it was. My "homeschooling" skills were even questioned. In any case, I never spell that word wrong anymore.

But mocking people or discrediting their opinion due to a grammar or spelling issue--unless the post is so out of whack incomprehensible...just look past it and move on. It's a discussion board and not a dissertation. IRL--people aren't checking my spelling when I am talking and this is just a replacement for talking IMHO.

As for it being a lost art--I have a theory aka an opinion that it is related to reading programs. Especially those programs that don't utilize phonics to teach reading. If one doesn't know how to decode words--then spelling a word they have never had to memorize for a spelling test is going to be wrong more often than not. (anyway--just a theory, no links for proof)

My DH is constantly asking me to spell words. I don't know if it is the "engineer" in him or what. He was a pretty average student until high school, he says.

I am picking up "text-ese", but I do not really care for it.

 

[Darsa]

Yeeeaaah, I'm a spelling Nazi I can't STAND to see words spelled incorrectly; I've learned to be more forgiving since I became a mom, but my daughter does definitely double check anything I'll be looking at

There's this sign downtown in the window of a mortgage company. It says exactly this:

COME IN WHEN YOUR READY TO OWN YOUR OWN HOME

Every time I see that stinkin' sign it makes me ANGRY. I understand just rattling off a reply on a thread having typos, but a permanent sign in a window???

 

[legalsea]

I think the reason people get upset over spelling errors here is because your writing is all we have. I don't know you. I don't know you're a chemist or a doctor or a veterinarian or a cashier at walmart. All I know is what you provide in your post. I have to form an opinion and a response to you based on all that you give us in a paragraph or two of posting. Grammar is important when the written word is all you have.

I subscribe to this statement.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

Yeeeaaah, I'm a spelling Nazi I can't STAND to see words spelled incorrectly; I've learned to be more forgiving since I became a mom, but my daughter does definitely double check anything I'll be looking at

There's this sign downtown in the window of a mortgage company. It says exactly this:

COME IN WHEN YOUR READY TO OWN YOUR OWN HOME

Every time I see that stinkin' sign it makes me ANGRY. I understand just rattling off a reply on a thread having typos, but a permanent sign in a window???

I drive by a sign everyday for a cleaning company, and it says "ORGANIC CLEANIG" It drives me crazy. You're a company for crying out loud!!!!

I usually give people a pass on message boards, because we're usually typing fast. The "textspeak" though drives me up a wall. A friend of mine is a teacher and he has students turn in papers with sentences that include "U" for "you", or "UR" for "your." But what can you do?

 

[parrothead365]

Only narrow minded people spell words just one way.