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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Spell it like it is
spiked: "Now, an academic has come up with an interesting compromise. Ken Smith, a criminologist at Bucks New University, England, argues that we should chill out and accept the most common spelling mistakes as ‘variant spellings’."
6 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Shakespeare himself is a great example of variant spelling. It seems to me that the only reason that variant spelling has died out is because now that such a large percentage of our population is literate, we created dictionaries to impose more structure on ourselves. While I personally like the structure and rules imposed by enforcing 'correct' spelling, I do think its a bit silly that people get in such a tizzy about the 'correctness' of a word which has only been decided on 'permanently' how many years ago?
"Many educators now consider the teaching of Correct Spelling as an elitist imposition that discriminates against the disadvantaged". This seems to be all to common in the realm of college students. I agree with Elize in saying most people overreact to common misspellings. This "tizzy" must have been what influenced Smith into creating a device that reduced the tension of elitism. While I am not supporting the acceptance of misspelled words in universities, I can completely understand Smith's motives for acting upon such senselessness.
I absolutely believe that proper spelling should be maintained and corrected. Much of our generation already has become lazier and lazier abbreviating words such as gr8, brb, lol, and many more. People use internet speak when they write formal papers. I bet a lot of the professors find misspellings with words like "wat," "wen" and "u". I believe that this IS an issue that one should get into a "tizzy" about. Otherwise, where would one draw the line? When would people learn to write formally? With technology helping us spell-check on computer documents, and online dictionaries making finding correct spellings appear at the touch of a button, I find there is really no excuse for these "common misspellings" in formal language (anything that is passed in for others to read).
The idea the article presents is only giving permission to people to get away with mis-spelling. Sure, it's an interesting idea, but it also promotes that idea of being able to take a bad habit, repeat it over a period of time, out of laziness, eventually molding bad habits into somethings "correct."
Language will change and that's a given; however, I would hope institutions of "higher learning" would promote what their title implies and not laziness. Not compromised learning. In all practicality, though, people will still insist on "dumbifying" their words in formal situations. And, that tells us a lot about that person. Does one really want an employer to see one writing "like dis" down the road?
The acceptance of "variant spelling" seems like a recipe for disaster for the English language. Any language depends on having a structure and a set of rules. Once people have permission to break these rules, there will be no reason to even learn them, and the structure of the language will break down. If we let spelling go, what's next? Will we allow grammar to go out the door as well? What about pronunciation? I think that to reinforce mis-spelling is to undermine the entire basis of the language.
6 comments:
Shakespeare himself is a great example of variant spelling. It seems to me that the only reason that variant spelling has died out is because now that such a large percentage of our population is literate, we created dictionaries to impose more structure on ourselves. While I personally like the structure and rules imposed by enforcing 'correct' spelling, I do think its a bit silly that people get in such a tizzy about the 'correctness' of a word which has only been decided on 'permanently' how many years ago?
"Many educators now consider the teaching of Correct Spelling as an elitist imposition that discriminates against the disadvantaged". This seems to be all to common in the realm of college students. I agree with Elize in saying most people overreact to common misspellings. This "tizzy" must have been what influenced Smith into creating a device that reduced the tension of elitism. While I am not supporting the acceptance of misspelled words in universities, I can completely understand Smith's motives for acting upon such senselessness.
I absolutely believe that proper spelling should be maintained and corrected. Much of our generation already has become lazier and lazier abbreviating words such as gr8, brb, lol, and many more. People use internet speak when they write formal papers. I bet a lot of the professors find misspellings with words like "wat," "wen" and "u". I believe that this IS an issue that one should get into a "tizzy" about. Otherwise, where would one draw the line? When would people learn to write formally? With technology helping us spell-check on computer documents, and online dictionaries making finding correct spellings appear at the touch of a button, I find there is really no excuse for these "common misspellings" in formal language (anything that is passed in for others to read).
The idea the article presents is only giving permission to people to get away with mis-spelling. Sure, it's an interesting idea, but it also promotes that idea of being able to take a bad habit, repeat it over a period of time, out of laziness, eventually molding bad habits into somethings "correct."
Language will change and that's a given; however, I would hope institutions of "higher learning" would promote what their title implies and not laziness. Not compromised learning. In all practicality, though, people will still insist on "dumbifying" their words in formal situations. And, that tells us a lot about that person. Does one really want an employer to see one writing "like dis" down the road?
The acceptance of "variant spelling" seems like a recipe for disaster for the English language. Any language depends on having a structure and a set of rules. Once people have permission to break these rules, there will be no reason to even learn them, and the structure of the language will break down. If we let spelling go, what's next? Will we allow grammar to go out the door as well? What about pronunciation? I think that to reinforce mis-spelling is to undermine the entire basis of the language.
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