SPELLING
I recently
did something to someone that I hate when it is done to me. I corrected his spelling. The word was spelled correctly, it was just a
homophone for the word he wanted. Spell check does not catch those.
I corrected
him offline because I know he wanted what he wrote to be professional.
I am a
terrible speller, if it were not for spellcheck, I would not even attempt to
write this blog. I can double check my
post a thousand times and still I will miss isle for aisle, weather for
whether and my all time favorite your for you're…spell check needs to be more intuitive.
I sometimes
joke that I am a poor speller because spelling is just not that important to
me. I am more interested in what I write
and what words I use than the correct arrangement of letters.
I could
easily read an article loaded with words spelled wrong, but phonetically correct
and it would not bother me one bit.
I no their
our sum readers hoo simply cud not get passed miss spelled words. (ok, that bothers even me)
Anyway, I
claim poor spelling can be a sign of intelligence. Intelligent people are not bothered about spelling because they are only concerned with content. They hone in on the meaning of words, the
intent of words, and not what the words look like on paper.
Intelligent
people “hear” the words and do not see or care about the letter arrangement. This is not to say that excellent spellers
are not intelligent, only that they perceive and process words differently than
poor spellers.
Of course
some poor spellers are just uneducated, but spelling is not a good indication
of intelligence.
Anyway, that
is my somewhat tongue-in-cheek explanation of my poor spelling and I am
sticking to it. The alternate explanation
is depressing.
As a goof,
and to support my theory I Googled “Notable bad spellers” and was surprised by
my findings.
https://leelofland.com/15-famous-thinkers-who-couldnt-spell/
Among the
list of poor spellers:
John F.
Kennedy
Winston Churchill
Ernest
Hemmingway
F. Scott
Fitzgerald
Albert Einstein
Turns out I don’t
keep such bad company.
Now all I
need is talent.
Sometimes I can spell okay and others times not so much. I had no idea this list of famous people couldn't spell either. Great company.
ReplyDeleteHave a fabulous day and week, Joe. ☺
I am like you about spellcheck. What a wonderful tool but even then I can pick the wrong choice out of three options. Wonderful to know our group is pretty darn special.
ReplyDeleteIt’s one thing to not know how to spell; it’s another thing to not know what the word actually is. I see things like, ‘flag was flying half mass’ all the time!🙄
ReplyDeleteYou're right, spelling is not a sign of intelligence. I'm a good speller, but I'm not smart. I passed exams at school, sometimes being top of the class even, but that's not a sign of intelligence either. More a sign of memory, remembering what was taught and being able to use it on the exam papers. and then forgetting it once school is over because you have no longer have need of any of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was still doing medical transcription and we were editing voice recognition, the software had trouble with some homophone words like "too, two, to" as well as of course "hear, here", "their, there". Frustrating to have to correct it all the time. Has nothing to do with your post, but I thought about it when I was reading your post. I consider myself a good speller but the two words I cannot spell for the life of me are territory and veterinarian. Thankful for spell check because I couldn't spell them here on my own and spell check came to the rescue :)
ReplyDeletebetty
I am learning to keep my corrections to myself.
ReplyDeleteJusr bear in mind that I am silently judging, and feeling fairly superior when I find an error.
I excelled in spelling as a child - then with old age I find sometimes I actually forget how a word is spelled. Thank God for spell check! I don't stress if someone spells something wrong - with my bad cataract eyes I overlook my misspelled words a lot.
ReplyDeleteBTW I'm back to My Morning Cup of Coffee Blog. Just go to my profile and I left a link. WordPress isn't that hard. I got it up and running within a couple of days.
Spelling just means you memorized how to spell words, that's all. You are correct, content is most important, editors are there to catch the errors.
ReplyDeleteI would never correct anybody's spelling. I know what they mean. Spelling has always been easy for me, as easy as breathing. Sometimes easier. I guess it's from reading a lot and remembering how the words look. Too bad I didn't spend my time reading MAPS. Then I would have known that ENGLAND IS AN ISLAND before I was an old lady, learning it from my kids. When I misspell words, it's due to lazy proofreading, and rushed typing.
ReplyDeleteI was always a good speller. Instinctual, some would say. I have a good friend who is a brilliant thinker. And an absolutely lousy speller. He drives me crazy. But, after many years of teeth grinding, I have learned to keep my mouth shut. What the hell does it matter, in the long run.
ReplyDeletei love languages and i would love to write my national language correctly even better than my classmates who were position holders .can't say about intelligence but yes i share your talent for miss spelling the words ,i think first reason is lack of practice and really poor vocabulary third is best excuse that english is not my own language but i love i could learn it and am able to share my heart through torn bits of it .
ReplyDeleteto be honest due to all reason i mentioned above wrong spelling restrict me to understand content though sometimes only .
thank you for encouraging link :)
blessings!
It's the wisdom not the spellink!
ReplyDeleteGod bless.