The Agony of Poor Spelling

[Belin]

There are number of people who have defended their poor spelling and grammar. Or have defended the right not to be criticized for it. Does this make their spelling correct? If it does not matter, why is there a standard? Why are there dictionaries? Why is it that an essay gets a big red circle around a misspelling, and resumes with such errors get tossed in the trash without further ado? The standard is real, it's out there, and people are critiquing your spelling whether you hear about it or not. Why use a message board to ingrain a bad habit? My writing, and spelling, has improved since I've started posting. And there has been plenty of room for improvement. A number of the fine writers here have brought me up to their standard.

I feel misunderstood. I do like standarized spelling (reading must have been quite difficult before its imposition), and it does make it much easier for me to read threads, and, in fact, I do notice the thread titles particuarly. The thing I object to is speaking of it in terms of "You are lazy corruptors of the language who cause us all agony! Stop being lazy, you fools!" (which may well be the sort of thing that leads to the dreaded (sp?) ) rather than, "Look, this is how we do it here," preferably followed by instructions concerning ways to accomplish it. As you point out yourself, Maril, modeling is far more helpful than criticism, particularly for those who are more used to writing in some other way. Indeed, I have trouble thinking of it as laziness, since I find it more difficult not to use standard spellings. In any case, to the degree that this thread has made helpful suggestions, it's fine.

But if it makes you feel better, I started a thread on 'Nominations: Best Thread Names!' at the same time I started this one. Just to balance things out. That has 20 responses. This has 58. Hmmm.

I did notice that, actually, and you're quite right. Off I go to post in that.

--Belin Ibaimendi

[ October 18, 2002: Message edited by: Belin ]