Is spelling a dying art?

Log in to reply
Mike W

Mike W

Free Member
    • Aug 19, 2010
    1,567
    359
  • #1
    Is it just me or is spelling correctly becoming quite old hat?

    Having teenage kids, I have noticed their general indifference to it. More worryingly, and clearly where this stems from, is the fact that their teachers don't seem to pick up on it and don't correct them at all (apart from English probably).

    Anyway, interviewed an 18 year old 'apprentice' today sent to us by an 'Apprentice Agency', who claim to run kids through their 'boot camp' before sending them out to prospective employees.

    His CV showed the test results he'd achieved there. Questioning the nature of their testing, I was surprised to hear that 'literacy' was done on spelling alone. My surprise turned to shock when told they were tested on words like ....wait for it ......'because'! :|

    Worse than that, they were given a multiple choice to select from!!! :eek:

    He got a mere 69% :(
     
    M

    Matt1959

    Free Member
    Sep 8, 2006
    6,325
    1,225
  • #2
    never mind spelling, my 10yr old son cant read a clock with numerals. I can hardly believe it:eek: cue a dad to Son session re. understanding how to tell the time:eek::eek:

    Re. spelling, it always amazes me when graduates post here and can't spell. I'm actually not a stickler for spellling as I think theres more important things in life to worry about but I always thought with a Uni education came the ability to do basic grammar:|
     
    Upvote 0
    Mike W

    Mike W

    Free Member
    • Aug 19, 2010
    1,567
    359
  • #3
    Matt1959 said:
    never mind spelling, my 10yr old son cant read a clock with numerals. I can hardly believe it:eek: cue a dad to Son session re. understanding how to tell the time:eek::eek:

    Re. spelling, it always amazes me when graduates post here and can't spell. I'm actually not a stickler for spellling as I think theres more important things in life to worry about but I always thought with a Uni education came the ability to do basic grammar:|
    Click to expand...

    Lol. Took ages with one of my sons for him to learn the time! Frustrating, I know ;)

    I agree with the 'more important things in life' ....but that does depend on what you do. Got to get it right in our game!
     
    Upvote 0

  • #4
    Wlel tehy souhl not hvae splet it worn in the frist palce.:eek:

    The English language is a joke surely ,What a lot of wasted effort when phonetic spelling would be so easy.

    Its about communication simples.:)

    Earl

    P.S think of all the ink we could save.:|
     
    Last edited:
    Upvote 0
    B

    BizGurl

    Free Member
    Sep 15, 2009
    3,023
    790
    Leeds/Newcastle-upon-Tyne, US of Europe
  • #6
    Lol. My younger brother (also 10) can only tell the time properly due to his obsession with TV guides!


    but yeh i wud say dat spellin n even gwamma iza dyin' art deez dayz innit?


    A lot of my friends (graduates) struggle to string a decent sentence together, and still get words like 'their', 'there' and 'they're' mixed up. I don't think the likes of Facebook et al help matters either.
     
    Upvote 0
    D

    Deleted member 3454

  • #8
    Texting is part of the problem as kids/teenagers love to abbreviate everything to be able to text as quickly as possible.

    I think it depends on the school. My 7-year old has spellings to learn each week which are then tested but when he does a piece of writing he has been taught to guess at words he doesn't know - when I was at school I was encouraged to use a dictionary to find out or check how to spell words.
     
    Upvote 0
    D

    Dawg

  • #9
    As Earl says, it is all about communication.
    Lets take the use of capital letters:

    "I helped my Uncle Jack off a horse"
    "I helped my uncle jack off a horse"

    If you can't tell that those sentences are communicating very different things you probably deserve the prison term you will get for animal abuse.

    Poor spelling and bad grammer lead to sloppy thinking and miscommunication. The usual excuse of "I was in a rush and it's only a forum" can be read as " I can't be arsed to check because I don't respect my readers". As any fule kno.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: KM-Tiger, estwig, StephenW and 1 other person
    Upvote 0
    N

    NBDealer

    Free Member
    Aug 26, 2008
    42
    6
    Manchester
  • #13
    Good thread - this is actually a pet hate of mine. The advent of texting and increased access to the internet, in particular social networking sites such as Facebook or chat sites, is leading to a change in our language. I despise this txt spk. My friends' niece posted last year 'gud luk 2 evry1 in ther english exams dis wk' - How ironic!

    But seriously, if kids are writing like this at home on social sites and texting 50 times a day whilst they are still effectively learning the english language, then it is not surprising if the quality of literacy is declining. I wonder where this will end, if it actually will? The evolution of the english language is interesting, it makes me wonder how it will be spoken and written in 100 years from now.
     
    Upvote 0
    9

    90DC

  • #14
    I clog up my Mum's SMS inbox because i can't be bothered to abbreviate spellings (My Mum is the only person i text)

    I do agree with others that spelling and grammar in all kinds of people is atrocious, if i had a choice of what to blame, it would be the good old 10p text message. Giving people 160 characters or something, they're going to want to get their point across in 160 characters exactly, to save 10p. It's like a penalty on people, like myself, who are on 550 characters before done (And that's only because i've put my apostrophes in and not abbreviated any word into "Text language".

    Also, people claim to not have the time to write long words anymore, Doctors claim it saves them time, maybe Dr. Carroll, but it doesn't half look unprofessional.

    Abbreviating words means people use them less, which means people like me end up with a pile of CVs on decision day, and 80% of them have spelling errors, including ones from Uni students. Although incorrect spelling annoys me, i don't discard of a CV for it's spelling mistakes, but i do note at the top how many i spotted in 30 seconds of looking.

    What really gets me, is a poor, and i mean, poor use of grammar. In honesty, i've never once seen these people as they never do make it to interview, but i'd love to put a face to the person who seems to have translated their work from French to English.
     
    Upvote 0
    A

    Andrew @ PLA

  • #19
    I've never been the best of spellers, but with the advent of 'spell checker' and 'text (or should that be txt) speak the general standards are going down in my opinion. I think it is more down to can't be bothered to spell rather than can't spell full stop. That doubled up with some very strange punctuation these days and the problem is compounded.

    **sits back and waits for somebody to point out a spellingm grammer and/or punctuation mistake ;)
     
    Last edited by a moderator:
    Upvote 0
    F

    Frankus

  • #20
    Who's to say that we are the guardians and custodians of the 'proper' english language?

    It's not that long ago that we were writing in 'Englyshe' and going to a 'shoppe' to buy a 'fyshe'. (the are many examples)

    A person from that time would recoil in horror at the raping of their language by the use of modern versions.

    The language is constantly evolving (and at an ever faster rate). We can't understand some of it, we certainly can't stop it, but we can continue to use our version. We have to be happy with that.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: sirearl and mr magoo
    Upvote 0
    vvaannmmaann

    vvaannmmaann

    Free Member
    Nov 6, 2007
    13,083
    3,364
  • #22
    Frankus said:
    Who's to say that we are the guardians and custodians of the 'proper' English language?

    It's not that long ago that we were writing in 'Englyshe' and going to a 'shoppe' to buy a 'fyshe'. (the are many examples)

    A person from that time would recoil in horror at the raping of their language by the use of modern versions.

    The language is constantly evolving (and at an ever faster rate). We can't understand some of it, we certainly can't stop it, but we can continue to use our version. We have to be happy with that.
    Click to expand...

    But we are discussing the here and now.Not the historical aspects.You are quite correct,language will change.
     
    Upvote 0
    B

    Bri

  • #23
    I'm forever making smelling pisstakes.

    My pet hate is C.V.'s all in lower case and no Grammar at all. I dont even bother to read them, doesnt matter how good the candidate think they are.

    I like milItarY acronyms though they are useful- FUBAR & SNAFU are my particular favourites.
     
    Upvote 0
    C

    CraigieDD

  • #24
    Mike W said:
    Is it just me or is spelling correctly becoming quite old hat?

    Having teenage kids, I have noticed their general indifference to it. More worryingly, and clearly where this stems from, is the fact that their teachers don't seem to pick up on it and don't correct them at all (apart from English probably).

    Anyway, interviewed an 18 year old 'apprentice' today sent to us by an 'Apprentice Agency', who claim to run kids through their 'boot camp' before sending them out to prospective employees.

    His CV showed the test results he'd achieved there. Questioning the nature of their testing, I was surprised to hear that 'literacy' was done on spelling alone. My surprise turned to shock when told they were tested on words like ....wait for it ......'because'! :|

    Worse than that, they were given a multiple choice to select from!!! :eek:

    He got a mere 69% :(
    Click to expand...

    Does it really matter? Some of the most brilliant minds in history couldn't spell for tuppence.

    A lot of the mis-spellings today are an natural (Albeit speeded up by technological advances) evolution of language.

    As long as the message is clear does it really matter? Take this sentence for example.

    Ds spllng rlly mttr?

    Missed out all the vowels but you still understand it?
     
    • Like
    Reactions: sirearl and mr magoo
    Upvote 0
    vvaannmmaann

    vvaannmmaann

    Free Member
    Nov 6, 2007
    13,083
    3,364
  • #31
    CraigieDD said:
    Does it really matter? Some of the most brilliant minds in history couldn't spell for tuppence.

    A lot of the mis-spellings today are an natural (Albeit speeded up by technological advances) evolution of language.

    As long as the message is clear does it really matter? Take this sentence for example.

    Ds spllng rlly mttr?

    Missed out all the vowels but you still understand it?
    Click to expand...

    Of course it matters.If you produced sites containing spelling errors and grammatical mistakes,your client's would be very unhappy wouldn't they?
     
    Upvote 0
    Log in to reply

    Latest Articles

    Top Bottom
    Community
    Articles
    Menu