I cant help noticing how bad some of the spelling is on these threads.
May I recommend a good spelling checker called IE SPELL that works in conjunction with internet explorer and is available on a free download on the net.

as long as a posting be understood i dont see anything bad about the odd spelling mistake ive got this spell checking thing and to be honest its a waste of time its too fiddly to use

People make spelling mistakes/typos, it's a fact of life... I don't see why anyone complains about it to be honest :loopy:

Unless it's that damned annoying text speak and l33t speak that's the cause of it all.

Originally posted by d71146
I cant help noticing how bad some of the spelling is on these threads.
May I recommend a good spelling checker called IE SPELL that works in conjunction with internet explorer and is available on a free download on the net. Cant has a little thing in it ' Can't.

Originally posted by tosh13
Cant has a little thing in it ' Can't.

An apostrophe?!

I don't care about spelling but the use of these little things ,.;:-
are always helpful to break up big paragraphs.

Duz it realie mater as long as u kan undastand?

Bwahahahah!

It worries me when I start sending work related emails like a 10 year old with a new mobile phone.

wow u working with t020????

u2 are in the same league.....jesus!!! :loopy:

ENJOY!!!!:P

Originally posted by d71146
I cant help noticing how bad some of the spelling is on these threads.
May I recommend a good spelling checker called IE SPELL that works in conjunction with internet explorer and is available on a free download on the net.

To be fair, you did miss an Apostrophe, and there should be a question mark at the end of your sentence as you put 'May I'.

But the post is about spelling, not grammar! :loopy:

Originally posted by Foxxx
But the post is about spelling, not grammar! :loopy:

Yep, and thats why i made the earlier post about spelling. I was just pointing out with the grammar bit that nobody is perfect and it doesn't really matter. It'd be boring if we all wrote like robots. :loopy:

I don't mind really so long as I can understand what is being said but please don't do the text speak thing that DOES drive me mad. :nono:

In fact I think it is quite bad mannered when members of the forum pick others up for their spelling errors.

In fact I think it is quite bad mannered when members of the forum pick others up for their spelling errors.

os od i, i hintk ti si rdiciluous taht spleling si os ipmotarnt ot oyu otl. ti doetsn tterma as ongl sa uyo knwo hwat ti yass.

what if someone is dislexic? jusy because maybe they have difficulty spelling, doesnt mean they should download something that checks every word, people should be comfortable and confident that what they write isnt going to be critisised just because they cant spell. its kinda like saying that if you have an accent then thats bad, that you should speak in "Queens English".

I'm dyslexic and spell checkers never helped me, because i often get words mixed up even though i spell them correctly. The other thing i do all the time, is miss S's off plurals, and there is no program to catch that either, so i'm screwed either way.

I am also really bad at spelling, i must point out, can't pretend that i'm not.

thing is if you get words mixed up, but use all the letters as i did above, youll find its really easy to read it as our brains do not rad the words in order, so it makes no difference.

so your not screwed as you put it!

I have a lot to do with someone who is dyslexic, and this kind of posting is just the thing that would make them never venture onto a public forum. Ok so all of you perfect people in this world are damned clever and know exactly what is right and what is wrong. Well bloody bully for you let's hope non of your relatives ever have something less than a perfect existence, and if they do see how you feel when some lame brain with nothing better to do criticises the way they spell or walk or look. or maybe you would like to put them into a home so they don't upset your perfect way of life. GET A LIFE.

owdlad. ( who doesn't give a s**t if spelling or punctuation is good so long as the subject is worth reading)

owdlad

Calm down :D

There's only one saddo on this forum who consistently picks on people for spelling errors. From my reading the general concensus is that spelling accuracy isn't very important.

Anyway IMO it's bad manners to draw attention to such things, and I was dragged up to believe good manners were important....you know - RESPECT :|

I'm with owdlad on this one. Some people obviously have nothing better to do in their life than post a thread criticising spelling. Good for nothing busybodies..probably the type that correct your grammer when talking to them...'it's whom..not who!!!' :loopy: :loopy:

Oh by the way Mimicraze...its Dyslexic....just kidding :)

Oh by the way Mimicraze...its Dyslexic....just kidding
hahaha brought a big smyle to my fase (LOL)

O.k. . . I can see arguements and reasoning for both sides of the fence here. . .

Some users have inherrent issues with spelling, punctuation and grammar. . which is acceptable. . as its something we accept as part of a diversive life and taking people as they are.
Its easy to see if someone is trying to spell correctly and making honest mistakes by how the mistake is made. .

On the other side of the coin, we have some users that deliberatley use alternate language and (in my opinion) pointless replacing of words for numbers and other charicters. The only reasons for this are either i) the offender thinks its cool and hip to use this new-breed txt speach on text messages and is taking it too far
ii) or the offender likes the text speach, due to its lack of effort required and is simply lazy and would rather press less keys.

If it's the latter and it is pure lazyness, i.e can't be bothered to type properly (and that's easy to tell too) . . . then on that same token. . . I cannot be bothered to read it. . .

Its about eqaulity. . . I try to post grammatically correct. . and I know that i am far from perfect. . but I do use as much S,P and G as possible out of respect for who-ever is reading it. .

Take for example. . .

I'm expecting to meet a friend later for dinner and i'd hope to see you there too. .
Im seeing a m8 l8ter 4 t and hope 2 c u there 2

The first line has a constant stream of regular information in a format that is completely standard.
The second is a lazy effort of the same information, which you have to decipher and de-code and then try to understand it. .

It also can take a couple of second takes to read and realise whats said, which takes longer than just reading a line of proper words and sentences. . so on that note. . . your lazyness is stealing my life. . .

I wouldn't say i'm opinionated, but I can see many facets to this arguement and there some of 'em.

Evidently if the BNP ever win an election we'll have to start putting apostrophes in shoul'd and coul'd. :loopy:

Ok. . . i post some decent comments on this subject about for and against points in this discussion and you reply with comments on politics. . . cheers for that tangent to off-topicville. . . makes my post feel really worth while. . .

Originally posted by Sidla
Evidently if the BNP ever win an election we'll have to start putting apostrophes in shoul'd and coul'd. :loopy:

ey?!!
what's all that about? why would you need to put an apostrophe in those words? Have I missed something?

I gave up trusting computer spell checkers after one suggested I write to a customer asking him to bring in his last three parsnips.

It should have been pay slips. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Rich

Unless it's that damned annoying text speak and l33t speak that's the cause of it all.

Maybe bad spelling is annoying to some as text speak is to you? I hate bad spelling and/or grammar, it's one of my pet hates. It reflects the falling standards in schools because good writing and numeracy skills have been totally abandoned to make for an out and out exam factory where nothing else matters other than learning just enough to pass the exams.

Originally posted by t020
It reflects the falling standards in schools because good writing and numeracy skills have been totally abandoned to make for an out and out exam factory where nothing else matters other than learning just enough to pass the exams.

Like Silverdale, for example?

Originally posted by Abdul
Like Silverdale, for example?

Yes, like Silverdale and like all schools. There should be a new module to be studied at GCSE level which would include spelling tests, numeracy tests (no calculators!), and a written essay (subject irrelevant) which purely tests grammar and punctuation. This is the only way schools woud spend any real time ensuring that their pupils have a grasp of what I believe are basic skills, but skills that so many people seem to lack.

Originally posted by t020
Yes, like Silverdale and like all schools. There should be a new module to be studied at GCSE level which would include spelling tests, numeracy tests (no calculators!), and a written essay (subject irrelevant) which purely tests grammar and punctuation. This is the only way schools woud spend any real time ensuring that their pupils have a grasp of what I believe are basic skills, but skills that so many people seem to lack.

Oh Mr high and mighty and how wouLd you spell WOUD in your perfect world......oh how the mighty are fallen.

I'm not sure that bad spelling and grammar directly reflects the falling standard of schools. I think to a certain extent some people just aren't very good at it. I'd been correcting my sister's essays for years, then we found out she was dyslexic, but I also regularly correct a friends spelling and grammar before he hands work in. I don't think he has been badly taught and I always tell him what he's done wrong, he just doesn't have a natural ability for it. We're not always good at the same things. I am good at numbers, spelling and grammar but I can't draw or write a creative essay. I don't think this is because I was badly taught.

On another, slightly relevant, point my sister has just failed to get through to the final round of a job because she has failed a verbal reasoning test. Given her dyslexia it is unlikely she would ever be able to do this test, however much time she were given. She has passed all the other interviews and tests yet because she can't put some sentences in the correct order they won't employ her, which I think is ridiculous.

Rant over, sorry.

Edit: Although I correct friends' spelling on msn regularly I wouldn't do it on here - that would be rude and I think textspeak is irritating too.

i agree Jayne, but you forget these people don't live in anything other than an ideal world. I know exactly where you are coming from but trying to get it over to these perfect people is never going to work.......perhaps they could start selective breeding so they could only have perfect children. God forbid if anyone of them ever had a child who was disabled in any way, because dyslexia is a disability just as much as any bad leg or arm but because it can't be seen then in their "perfect world" it should be held up for ridicule.
owdlad.

Yes, what gets me is all companies like this have an equal opportunities policy but yet when it's comes to dealing with someone with a disability they have no idea. There were good with her to a certain extent, letting her retake the test and giving her more time but it would really be better if they found a different way of testing her general intelligence. She has ways of overcoming her dyslexia so when in a job it wouldn't be a problem. It makes me so angry.

right what im about to say is going to get some back lash but....

i rite like dis cos its easier!!

i can turn it on when doing my assignments and off again when im writting an email, tx or on a forum!!

sorry if its not what you want to see, but you can still understand it!!

but this is modern slang.... whether you, me or the queen dont like it!!!

times change and so do short cuts!!

it take far less time to write in tx language!! even in a tx theres predictive tx, people dont need to be able to spell anymore!! computers will do everything!!

:D

Yep. these companies pay lip service to disabilities but then when it comes down to it they make some half baked excuse and go their own way.

Originally posted by owdlad
Oh Mr high and mighty and how wouLd you spell WOUD in your perfect world......oh how the mighty are fallen.

There's a big difference between spelling mistakes and obvious minor typing errors, but thanks for bringing the error to my attention.

It's ok to say that you hate bad spelling, but not everyone can help it, and it's not the fault of a poor education in every case.

In most cases it is though.

But isn't it rude to correct people if you don't know the reason? You could really be effecting someone's self esteem and confidence.

Correcting people is a public service. I highly doubt it affects their self esteem. If anything, it should boost it. A quick correction will leave them feeling warm and fuzzy inside, safe in the knowledge that someone out there cares enough to try to help them out.

Normal spelling errors or inaccuracies are not a problem for anyone. As has been pointed out by Mimi, our brain reads the whole word. so we usually ignore errors naturally. Most people would have to make en effort to analyse a string of words to pick up any errors. Of course most people have more important things to worry about than bad spelling.

As far as the education aspect goes, I believe that there are far more literate people now than there were a few decades ago. I also think complaining about someone's ability in English is the same as complaining about their ability in any subject. I woudln't pick on someone for being crap at physics, so i'd be annoyed if anyone moaned about my use of English.

Text speak annoys me because I've never used it, so it takes more effort for me to read than normal English. However, I don't moan about it, I just deal with it. Life really is too short.

Unlike Physics though, English is something you will use every day of your life. In my view it is essential that you can use it properly.

Originally posted by Andy78
As far as the education aspect goes, I believe that there are far more literate people now than there were a few decades ago. I also think complaining about someone's ability in English is the same as complaining about their ability in any subject. I woudln't pick on someone for being crap at physics, so i'd be annoyed if anyone moaned about my use of English.

.

I don't think so. Half of all our universities are now having to run remedial courses for their students in literacy and numeracy.

So much for standards rising. Anybody who needs this kind of tuition at degree level is not worthy of a university place.

An adequate knowledge of English is enough for us to get through life. As long as we can communicate with each other it's fine. In my case, a comprehensive knowledge of physics is far more important than English so that's what I've prioritised. If I'm writing something important then I'll spell check and proof read it first.

Originally posted by Mo
I don't think so. Half of all our universities are now having to run remedial courses for their students in literacy and numeracy.

So much for standards rising. Anybody who needs this kind of tuition at degree level is not worthy of a university place.

I know my university does have English and maths support. The English support is mainly used by students that don't speak English as their first language as well as student that have dyslexia. The maths support is mainly utilised by students studying technical subjects. A lot of engineering students struggle at first with the standard of maths, because A level maths just doesn't come close. I do think that the gap between A level and degree maths is huge.

If a student shows competence in their chosen subject, They should be allowed to study it. Maths/English ability should not be prevent them from being successful. This is why Universities provide help in these areas.

Originally posted by Andy78
An adequate knowledge of English is enough for us to get through life. As long as we can communicate with each other it's fine.

I get letters every day at work that are so badly written that I can't tell what the person is trying to say.

I also see people every day who can't add up. I am often asked by customers to lend them a calculator. They look amazed when I say I don't have one to hand. Often they just want do a very simple calculation. If people can't add up, they could easily be ripped off every day, without knowing it.

Andy I don't think thats anything new though. If it gets to the point that we can't understand each other then maybe there is a problem, but if it's just simple spelling mistakes and mis-placed punctuation, as it is most of the time on this forum, then i don't see it as an issue.

Originally posted by tinajones
An apostrophe?!

I don't care about spelling but the use of these little things ,.;:-
are always helpful to break up big paragraphs. thank's for the apostrophe I forgot what they called it lol

Originally posted by Andy78
IIf a student shows competence in their chosen subject, They should be allowed to study it. Maths/English ability should not be prevent them from being successful. This is why Universities provide help in these areas.

They do now because standards are declining but this has not always been the case.

which standards are declining? If someone hasn't got the ability to pass a degree, say in quantum mechanics, then they won't pass. If someone does have the ability to take up such a degree, surely they shouldn't be prevented just because their use of the English language is sub-standard. Surely they should be given as much support as possible in English so that it doesn't hinder they're true ability. Surely you don't disagree with people improving their ability in English (or in maths as the case may be).

But theres a major difference between someone trying hard to spell corretly and making genuine mistakes... as apposed to some bone idle, half educated goon. . . wasting/stealing my life by simply not being bothered to type correctly. .

Originally posted by munky
But theres a major difference between someone trying hard to spell correctly and making genuine mistakes... as apposed to some bone idle, half educated goon. . . wasting/stealing my life by simply not being bothered to type correctly. .

I agree, but in my experience, most people make sense. To what extent to you mean lazy though? Are we talking about punctuation here or something else. how do we tell the difference between someone being lazy and someone who has trouble with spelling?

There's a few issues here that I'd like to comment on. (This posting will probably take me twice as long as might be expected to type because I'm going to try and get spelling, grammar and capitalisation correct...:-) )

In linguistic terms, English is a language with a high level of redundancy. You can write sentences and omit letters and words and even phrases and still make out the meaning of the sentence. This is why we can use abbreviations and text-english, for example more easily in english than in some other languages.

When I was at school, I suffered quite badly (some issues to do with being made to use my right hand for writing rather than my left hand) in terms of my writing and some spelling, and for many years maintained the belief that if the content of what I wrote was OK, then the appearance and spelling was less important. However, a few teachers let me in on the secret - people will often treat bad spelling, grammar and handwriting as a sign of sloppiness, laziness and wooly thinking. Whether that's true or not, and I believe that it's twaddle, it's a big enough issue to make me try and consider carefully what I write.

And, when the arguments on here get very fierce, there are always a few people who'll take up the name-calling approach of criticising spelling, so by taking care of spelling, etc. you take away a weapon from your debating opponent!

Joe

That is true joe. One thing that poor spelling does is give amunition to someone who has nothing better to argue with.

To be honest, I generally do check my spelling, but my grammar is far from perfect. I dont's see it as a major issue though as it rarely causes me problems.

I have a really silly typing 'habit' where I transpose vowles and consonants, so that 'the' gets typed as 'teh' when I'm in a hurry.

The stupidest thing I did was to accidentally add 'teh' to the spell checker in Word. Took me ages to work out why everyone was making cracks about 'teh'....

My other favourite spelling error triggered by this typing anomaly is to type 'sue' instead of 'use'.

So, I sue Microsoft softwrae rather than I use Microsoft software....:-)

Joe

Originally posted by Snook
But isn't it rude to correct people if you don't know the reason? You could really be effecting someone's self esteem and confidence.


...or downright ungracious/ungrateful...

"Dear Gran,

Thank you for the cheque you sent me for my birthday. It was nice to hear from you again, but I do wish you would pay more attention to your spelling and grammar...."
:D

I was also forced to write with my right hand instead of my left. Because of this i have always been somewhat ashamed of my handwriting. Probably not made better by my poor spelling because of my dyslexia. I am also dyspracsic... (awwwww, its a hard life)... but i have managed to do a degree, and hold down jobs with no problems.

Given that the language in this country has enough different dialects to confuse someone from only a short distance away, perhaps we should look to use a formalised english when communicating with anyone we don't know to be familiar with our own, personal use of english.

Otherwise, in response to a simple question like, for example:

would anyone care to go biking in sheffield this weekend?

one may end up with reponses like:

personw:ay (lincolnshire for pardon?)
personx:r (norfolk for yes)
persony:aye (sheffield for yes)
personz:i (shef tx for yes)
yet to anyone not familiar with colloquialisms the conversation would read

ay
r
aye
i

and the question, in their mind, remains unanswered!

So in conclusion, whilst obvious errors, due to speed typing ineffeiciently or similar, are in general ok & understandable, the complete bastardisation of our language is unacceptable. Please, for the sanity of those who could be bothered to at least try to understand to one's best, the medium through which we communicate, make an effort to improve yourselves instead of giving weak excuses for laziness. Otherwise you remain mindless cogs in the machine, whose ignorance is exceeded only by your inability to grasp that learning of all and any forms is better than any freedom you think you are excersizing.

Anyone who believes I am posh, or a snob, or even trying to degrade would probably benefit from knowing there is a support group out there just for you:

www.chavscum.co.uk

Thankyou for reading my rant!

did you know i can't spel

Doesn't bother me so long as i can make sense of a sentence but, rightly or wrongly it does create an impression of the person

imo, i dont get an impression of the person by the way they spell, most of the time i don't need to check if i have spelt something correctly, as i am always looking at the screen when i am typing so I can see what i'm writing but sometimes i just can't be bothered, and therefore shorten my words, people get tired and to them how they spell on the sheffield forum doesn't have any relevance.