Poor spelling

[Amanita]

I remember posting on a message board for poi spinners. Several people wanted to know how to make fireswords- swords with kevlar wicking attached that can be lit on fire. It's not as easy as it sounds, given that certain metals react badly to repeated heating and cooling cycles, and that drilling holes into a piece of metal can create potential stress points. (holes are needed to attach the wicking to the blade).
I also happened to be a member of an online sword forum with a decent community of swordsmiths. So helpfully, I suggested that the poi spinners head over there to ask their questions, such as if a prop like a fire sword could be made from bar stock, or would it need to be forged? What metal would be best, and so on. But I think I scared them off when I said that the sword forum preferred its members to speak in proper english, without text-speak or internet-isms.

[Slytovhand]

4. "Witch" for "Which"; "There" for "Their"; "Ma/Mah" for "My"; "Your" for "You're"; "It's" for "Its"; "Wit" for "With"; "Jus" for "Just"; "Im" for "I'm".

Firstly, to add to the list, I hate the then/than mixup!!! It's a simple one to correct... 'Then' - following (A, then B). 'Than' - comparison (A is bigger than B) ! Simple!

"When I find a student that knows the difference between its possessive without an apostrophe and it's with an apostrophe ...." (Dr. Wilder Dawson's Creek Season 5)

'It' is a pronoun... not a 'simple' noun. So - his, hers, its - no '. Peter's is a personal noun thus '.

It's sad cuz you'd expect someone who grew up speaking English as their first language to type English decently.

"Cuz"????


And on the native vs non-native, as GD indicated... when you learn a langauge 'organically' such as immersion in a culture, you learn a lot of mistakes - similar to when you are brought up in your native. When you are taught, you aren't learning any mistakes or incorrectness.. and hopefully, that incorrectness gets graded out.

And when you are formally learning a language, you actually need to learn the grammar - and get marked on whether you actually know it. So, anytime you formally learn a language, you will also learn more about your own grammar etc. Thus, fluent non-natives are better in this regard than natives. They just won't sound native in conversation (because natives don't use their language 'correctly').

And my sister who told me that her dyslexic daughter's teachers told her not (NOT) to correct spelling mistakes in notes written at home or on the internet, because children need some place to make mistakes without getting corrected. She was also told to remove any spell checking programs, because being constantly "nagged" about her spelling would cause the child to suffer self esteem issues.

Yes, there is a time and place for such times. It improves one's confidence in a given field if they are allowed to just use. As long as the student understands that's what it's for. Dyslexia?? I don't know. But definitely in language acquisition... students just need the space to just..'experiment'. Let them learn when they learn, and use when they use.


I have problems believing that some of my other teachers here keep making the same sort of elementary mistakes... like using a 'z' in a stack of words that obviously need to have an 's' in them....

On a more serious note, that is exactly how language has 'evolved'. Think (or research) about the number of tenses and cases English used to have.. and we don't now... because people became lazy if they were taught (or the errors just weren't corrected).

[Fashion Lad!]

And on a less personal level, it's happened before that I've been chatting with someone online, and had them get very irate with me for asking if they had a learning disability or if English was their first language. (this being when that person's spelling made it difficult to understand what they were typing.)

On a personal level, I'd be pretty pissed if someone asked me whether or not I had a learning disability. But, maybe that's just me and whomever you were talking to. We're sensitive.

I type out my texts completely with punctuation. My grammar isn't perfect. I know that my grammar will never be perfect. I try.

[ladyneeva]

The use of texting shorthand in forum posts just seems really disrespectful to me. Like you don't even respect other people enough to take the slight effort required to at least attempt to spell out the words you are using.

On the misspelling thing... on the one hand, I can understand how the occasional misspelled word will slip by. But when there aren't three correctly spelled words in a 50 word post, there is a problem. Especially since I think all three of the major browsers either have spell checkers or can have them added.

[Lace Neil Singer]

"Cuz"????

Please read ALL my posts.

the odd word here and there is fine, but entire posts of it are not allowed.

I don't really care if people use odd shortened words; I do it myself, being a lazy typist; even tho I can type correctly, using all my fingers. However, was I submitting an official document, I'd type it properly, without any shortened words at all. However, on forums, as long as the post is readable, then the odd one doesn't matter. So, your point is meaningless, as I have not said, "All shortened words are EBIL."

[gremcint]

I have a friend, smart guy but anti academic. We were working on a business proposal. He had written the start of it and I edited it. So after deleting the extra '.'s from each sentence and going through and making paragraphs instead of there being a new line for each sentence, he reads it over again.

So you do know what he said?

"You know you're supposed to start a new line after each period right?"

I dared him to find a single book on his shelf that followed that, he said they were just condensing the information. I managed to convince him but that was 2 months ago and I still have no clue whatsoever where he got that idea.

[jackfaire]

I still have no clue whatsoever where he got that idea.

My guess typing class.

[McDreidel09]

"You know you're supposed to start a new line after each period right?"

I remember having to do that for homework assignments...in elementary school when I first learned how to write.

Yeesh.

[MergedLoki]

It's schools, well in combination with texting, facebooking, the internet in general.

Everyone (mostly kids/teens obviously) are using the lil internet shorthands like brb etc. (hell i use them all the time myself :P).

It all depends on context though. If i'm typing a post on the boards here, emailing or texting a friend. I don't really CARE if i make a few typos as long as the message gets across fine.

If I'm writing a formal paper or an email at work to my manager or something then yes i'll write in full sentences, no short forms and i'll make sure spelling is correct.