What about spellcheck at least?
In one page, one student of mine spelled the following words wrong. One page.
ANOYING
WORLDS (even though it was used as a possessive)
HESSITATES
CANT
STARRING (meant “staring”)
April 27th, 2009 in
reflection | tags: screenplay, screenwriting, spellcheck, spelling, teaching, writing
oh man, typos bother me so much! I am crazy about going over and over again whatever I write and making sure it is just how I want it. I actually LOVE editing–it’s one of my favorite things to do.
And yeah, why didn’t that student notice the red squiggly line underneath of those words, at least?
well, they’re not going to college to get their speling degree, what do you expect?
I think spelling has spiralled (did I spell that right?) downward because people use so many abbreviations now on the internet and in texting. Honestly, our language and spelling has been changing. New words are forming and certain words spelled a different way will be accepted in the future. I now spell “night” as “nite” and I know the right way to spell it, but I like “nite” better. People often make mistakes with the possessive.
To be fair, I do know this genius who cannot — even if his life depended on it– spell “breathe” and “breath” and “cloths” and “clothes” correctly in the right context…. but I adore him even so…
About fifteen years ago I read an impassioned argument that it shouldn’t be called “spellcheck,” but “spelling check.” The writer’s point was that we are not wizards wanting our spells to be checked. Instead, we are writers wanting our spelling to be checked. Just a little meta-criticism for you.
Spelling is something that I consider important (it bothers me that Microsoft has misspelled words in log files that its programs generate), but something that we all fail in at some point.
Bad spelling annoys me! Those errors are not like breath and breathe – they are basic spelling rules that a 4th grader knows! Unfortunately, I’ve noticed many homeschoolers have atrocious spelling – maybe this student was home schooled? (I’m in for it now, aren’t I?)
Oh my gracious, Jase, that is the written equivalent to fingernails on a blackboard, in my opinion!
Brett, did you intentionally misspell spelling (“speling”) to be funny?! ;-]
Lynn, that word is spelled “spiraled” here in the U.S.; the British version is “spiralled” (according to the dictionary on my Mac dashboard).
I know that people make mistakes all the time, but when it comes to something you’re handing in professionally or for a grade, don’t you think you should look it over and proof it? This was one page! And those weren’t typos, either.
I understand mispellings on blogs or email and certainly with texting… but when it’s a screenplay or an essay or a memo, the foundation are your words. It’s like trying to be a ballet dancer without learning any of the positions.
Jase, you got me with the ballet metaphor.
And Michele, dear dear Michele…I would venture to say that it is not many home schoolers who are bad spellers (or at least that is no the reason for it), but rather people who don’t like to read, whether home schooled or not.
I think people who spend a lot of time reading words generally end up with a pretty good grasp on spelling, whereas people who don’t can struggle.
And maybe we could leave home schooling out of the equation (said the home schooler)…;-)
Here here Jessica – Michele’s coment showes howe ignarant she relly is aboutt homescholed chilldren.
Michelle…
That was really rude. Homeschoolers crammed a lot of learning into those 15 minutes a day!
and especially every Friday when mom and pop just took us somewhere fun for our field trip!