Spelling - does it matter on The Forum?

[David Bailey]

Setting aside for a moment that this may or may not be the right thing to do from an educational viewpoint, it's patently silly.

I'm now having to agree with Andy...

In terms of the dancer example... when a particularly talented lead, with much competition experience, who is capable of the most difficult of moves is dancing with a fairly new follow should he dance with her exactly the same as he would with his competition partner?

Of course not, that would be equally dumb - that's why I said:

whilst targetting their dancing to match the style and ability of their partners

My analogy was of a dancer making deliberate mistakes - for example, dancing off-time occasionally, or yanking, with the aim of making their partner "feel better". Surely we can all agree that this would be a weird way to approach a dance?

In terms of the Nutty Professor (!), he should be writing at a level and style which reaches his intended audience. His approach smacks of the Ali G trendy wannabe "Yo! I'm one of u! Look I can spel bad too dudes!" style.

OK, I could me maligning the guy, there could be a valid reason for making mistakes - but "appealing to your audience by screwing up" doesn't seem sensible to me.

[stewart38]

I think the human mind doesnt really care its smarter then you think and most people understand what Im saying , I just need to convince them their idea/thought is wrong


Olny srmat poelpe can.

I Cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a
wrod are,
the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the
rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a
porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef,
but the wrod
as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was
ipmorantt!

If you can raed tihs psas it on !!"

[El Salsero Gringo]

...sffut...

Interesting. And the faster you go, the easier it is to understand and the more sense it appears to make.

(In fact that seems to apply to most of what Stewart writes... )

[Heather]

I think the human mind doesnt really care its smarter then you think and most people understand what Im saying , I just need to convince them their idea/thought is wrong


Olny srmat poelpe can.

I Cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a
wrod are,
the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the
rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a
porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef,
but the wrod
as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was
ipmorantt!

If you can raed tihs psas it on !!"

Reading this totally irritates me!!!!!
What a pile of 'sihte' to utilise the above example of bad spelling
I agree with Mr McGregor spelling is important.
Grammar is important.
Those primary children on 'The Hard Spell' or whatever it was called, on TV during the holidays would put many a Forum member to shame.

Heather,
x

[LMC]

If people are trying to write for a specific audience, vocabulary and sentence structure are the most useful things to adapt. Deliberately mis-spelling words is just silly and counter-productive as DJ & Andy M have said.

[pjay]

Of course not, that would be equally dumb - that's why I said:

Ooops. I screwed up again...

In terms of the Nutty Professor (!), he should be writing at a level and style which reaches his intended audience. His approach smacks of the Ali G trendy wannabe "Yo! I'm one of u! Look I can spel bad too dudes!" style.

OK, I could me maligning the guy, there could be a valid reason for making mistakes - but "appealing to your audience by screwing up" doesn't seem sensible to me.

It seems to me that he was not working in an attempt to be accepted himself, but to encourage acceptance and participation of others - now as has been said this could just be a cover-up for his bad spelling, but do we always have to assume the worst of people? (Yes I know that people do have a tendancy to try to hide their imperfections, but I find that most people by the time they get into their 20's are fairly aware that they exist, and most people who pursue a career such as this usually seem to be able to admit that they're not perfect).

Anyway... at the end of the day I think this is an example of opinions, and I think we have a fair idea of where each other stands - and it would seem to me that probably this professor stands on the side of "spelling is not as important as contribution."

[stewart38]

Reading this totally irritates me!!!!!
What a pile of 'sihte' to utilise the above example of bad spelling
I agree with Mr McGregor spelling is important.
Grammar is important.
Those primary children on 'The Hard Spell' or whatever it was called, on TV during the holidays would put many a Forum member to shame.

Heather,
x

How many mistakes are there in this, I counted 6

[David Bailey]

How many mistakes are there in this, I counted 6

I got 8 - can anyone beat that? Do I get a prize?

[McJester]

Even easier: the latest Google toolbar has an integrated spell checker.

Is it any good ?

I'm Dyslexic ( something malious about how hard that is to spell ) and find that spell checkers help but quite often I can stump them, took me 2 years to find out necessary had a "c" in it

As long as people can understand what you are typing then to me it just being pedantic, verging on anal to get upset about spelling/grammer/punctuation.

Ok so I'm biased on the subject as I have poor written english skills, but what is the point in getting upset / disregarding someone's input if they have problems with written English, some very intellegent people aren't so hot on this, so should there comments be disregarded.

Basically you can guess that I'm with Gadget on this one.


McJester

<hr>
" It's a might poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word " - Andrew Jackson

[David Bailey]

It seems to me that he was not working in an attempt to be accepted himself, but to encourage acceptance and participation of others

Good point, thanks for reminding me of the difference.

- now as has been said this could just be a cover-up for his bad spelling, but do we always have to assume the worst of people?

OK, it's a major reach to try to understand the justification, given a very limited amount of information. And who knows, maybe it worked? Hell, maybe even "making deliberate mistakes to break the ice" works for dancing too... I still think it's weird though.

Anyway... at the end of the day I think this is an example of opinions, and I think we have a fair idea of where each other stands - and it would seem to me that probably this professor stands on the side of "spelling is not as important as contribution."

Another good point - stop it, you're scaring me

Yes, spelling is not as important as contribution. And that applies to this Forum as well.

Let's all just chill out, the sun is shining and we can all be happy

And in the spirit of love and tenderness, I'd like to share a tip for writing posts.

Always re-read it after posting, it's amazing how many mistakes you'll pick up on and the Save button is easy to click on.

[ducasi]

Oh, and I want world peace as well. And a pony to go with Ducasi's.

I'll have a pony as well please. And a plastic rocket.

Sorry, I got the pony first...

[DianaS]

OK, I could me maligning the guy, there could be a valid reason for making mistakes - but "appealing to your audience by screwing up" doesn't seem sensible to me.

Well every time you open your mouth then, speak clearly, articulately choose your words carefully, use sentences rather than phrases, and don't mispronounce any word ever. I mean EVER
cas basically you owe it to the person that you communicate with not to make mistakes, or errors, or be imprecise.

Gosh David haven;t you ever heard of text chat...
You text, you chat, its more informal like speach eh?
Sad git

[David Franklin]

Is it any good ?

Debatable. It finds six errors in your post (excluding that it doesn't like McJester). It doesn't give a good suggestion for 'malious' - which is slightly odd given that if you type it into www.google.com, it asks if you meant 'malicious'. And I think your use of "someone's" is OK, but Google doesn't like it. I think the tool is correct and makes good suggestions for the other 4, although two are fairly pedantic ('OK v.s. Ok' and 'English v.s. english'). I noticed one homonym in your post ('there' v.s. 'their') - unsurprisingly the spell check doesn't spot this.

To be honest, other than 'malious', there was nothing in your post that made me pause and think "OK, what does he mean?", so I had no problem with it.

As others have said, grammar and punctuation are more likely to cause genuine problems than the occasional misspelling.

[Barry Shnikov]

Well, let's give it a try.

Who can spell 'synecdoche'?

[Andy McGregor]

Well, let's give it a try.

Who can spell 'synecdoche'?

Not me. How's it spelt?

[MartinHarper]

Hell, maybe even "making deliberate mistakes to break the ice" works for dancing too....

I've seen folks who make it work. Kinda like dancing meets slapstick.

[under par]

I reelly thinc you all are takin this topick two seriouslie.

Chil out and enjoy yer danzin.

[David Bailey]

Well every time you open your mouth then, speak clearly, articulately choose your words carefully, use sentences rather than phrases, and don't mispronounce any word ever. I mean EVER
cas basically you owe it to the person that you communicate with not to make mistakes, or errors, or be imprecise.

Well, I try not to mispronounce words on porpoise, yes...

Seriously, whilst I slagged the guy off, did it actually work? If so, I'd be interested - my experience and intuition tells me it's a dumb thing to do, but I could be wrong (it happens, occasionally).

[fletch]

I got 8 - can anyone beat that? Do I get a prize?

Is there something wrong with it?

[Heather]

I got 8 - can anyone beat that? Do I get a prize?

OK 'satrarmase' !! Where are the spelling mistakes ??


Heather.