Why Are People Such Terrible Spellers Nowadays ?

[Samuraisan]

Do they not read books ? My children are 28+ and would I would be ashamed if their spelling was as bad as I read on some posts.

[Bathsheba]

Yeah Minty...being called Baff really gets on my nerves ;) x x

[venator]

My daughter was given some test papers at school without being told what they were.

They were ridiculously easy, and the class (private girl's school) laughed through them.

They were told later that they were American SATS tests for older pupils, and thet they had scored in the top 90% - casually and with no preparation.

What America does today ......

[jourdain2]

Going back a bit in this post Retrochic, just re-read, but 'yes' it is possible to start, quite correctly, a sentence with 'And'. It would take a bit of time to explain and involves sub-clauses. Lol x

[Bathsheba]

@grasscarp.....eek!! + how about all those chests of draws? ;) x x

[Canary42]

For a partial answer to your question, you could start with a glance at my earlier post.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Jokes/Question1420563.html

[jourdain2]

I know that one Canary - used to use it with my classes in fact! But the point is that we all managed with these idiosyncrasies, no problem. Exceptions were logged as exceptions and learnt. Spelling tests rarely take place nowadays when once they were a weekly norm. It comes down to the understanding that children have to be told and taught what is correct, sorry, there is no alternative. It would be nice if osmosis did the work for us - but it doesn't.

[Canary42]

I don't disagree Jurdain2, and I did originally publish it in Jokes.

I do abhor a lot of the dumbing down we've had dumped on us (15th February 1971 for example).

[Canary42]

Ooops, typo on your name, sorry.

[mibn2cweus]

One thing I could never quite get my head around in school was why they always made the #*&@! eraser so much shorter than the pencil?

[-Talbot-]

and I would be ashamed if their spelling was as bad as I read on some posts.


Do you correct these posters, Samuraisan?
Or just quietly look down your nose at them?

[Mamyalynne]

I actually squirm a little when people correct/ridicule or pretend not to know what someone is saying as I did in Health & Fitness Yesterday/today.


I'm not sure what folk get out of it.

[Retrochic]

sherrardk kindly pointed out:
"Retro - isn't that rather contradictory? At 22.02 you said it didn't matter, either it does or it doesn't (especially if the work doesn't involve a lot of writing)."
One comment was on general spelling,the other comment was on spelling and grammar on important documents such as a CV. It does not matter if the person is applying for a job as a doctor or a dustman, they should have the mindfulness to check over the document before sending it in. I received a CV from a young man who had 'Studied to be a Stonemasen' at college If after three years you can't even spell your Trade there is little hope you would take care when reading plans or even getting a concrete mix in correctly.

[Old_Geezer]

They're terrible spellers because they didn't go to Hogworts.

[B00]

I've told this 'story' before, but it's still relevant.

When Elder Mini Boo was at high school, she was told by her high school that in English lessons that her spelling and grammar was unimportant as long as the context was somewhat legible. I was floored, and even though I tried to tell and show her otherwise at the time it never improved, to the point that at the grand old age of 26 her writing is still appalling.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert, I'm sure there's more than one typo and spelling mistake in this post of mine alone, but grammatical errors especially do make me wince when I see them.

That being said, I do tend to ignore them. I will in fact totally ignore any 'text speak' posts that I see as I find it ruddy exhausting trying to decipher them!

[jim360]

Hogwarts* (other wizarding schools are also available)

[jim360]

There are quite a few people who get very irate about poor spelling, but will later admit, without much embarrassment, "I was never very good at maths". I think it's a shame that one is viewed as a problem and the other not so much of one.

[Retrochic]

I think everyone has there 'wincing' moments lol! For me its wrong conjugation of verbs such as 'we was' or 'I were'. Spelling causes me all sorts of problems having spelled (spelt?) words in North American English and Quebecois French as a child, I don't bother checking too much if its just on a forum or social media but business letters obviously need to be perfect.

[ummmm]

Jim...we don't speak in maths.

[Retrochic]

jim did you see the BBC news this morning about the maths problem? something along the lines of n2 (squared) - n -90 = 0 what is n?

[jim360]

Indeed not, umm, but some level of basic arithmetic ought to be a skill. Maths is something everyone can, in principle, understand independent of the language they speak, so it's quite a useful skill.

Yet, I did see it retrochic. Saw the full problem properly, proved the required thing within a second, trying to understand what the fuss is about. As far as I can tell, some students are complaining at being asked to actually think in a maths exam. It seems to be that sort of question.