Is spelling ded?

[Dave Rosenthal]

I ask the question after re-reading more then 325 comments posted about the Stephen King/Stephenie Meyer fan-feud on The Baltimore Sun's book blog (www.baltimoresun.com/readstreet). Many are teeming with misspellings, the sort that grate on the soul. I've made my peace with those common in texting and Twittering: u, cant, ur, omg, lol, idk. Others are counter-culture spellings -- lyfe, skilllz, etc. -- that impart a certain edginess. I can live with them, too.
But I still wince at the uncaring construction of words: arguements, presence, dimond, jelous, pshychatic, accusitions, audiance, critizizm. One commenter, invoking the First Amendment, noted that everyone "has a write to his opinion." Another, referring to vampire lore, wrote about driving "a steak through the heart."
The question for us all: How much slippage can we tolerate? I get ticked off every time I drive home and see the misspelled road sign: Marbelhead Road. But there are larger issues at hand than the misguided public works department. Will all writing someday slip soundlessly into a weird sort of Internet dialect: i mist u 4eva!!!!!!!! Or will we be sbjected to a mash of misspellings: King is jelous becuz Meyer took his audiance; he shudnt b critizicing. Or -- shudder -- both.

[Harvee Lau]

Could it be that just the fans of these books can't spel? (Apologies to the wide world of horror and vampire fans).

[Brooks Sigler]

I'm an English teacher--it is hardly just the fans of these books who cannot spell. Although I am constantly correcting spelling, I sometimes have to pick my battles. I do tell students that while it is okay to use "text speak" for instant messages and phone texts, it is not okay to do so on a formal English submission. We have had to contend with the holistic approach to assessing work, which is both good and bad.

The advent of the Internet has paved the way for more and more of us to have a say, rapid-fire, without proofing or much thought, so is it the medium or the messenger? Letters of yore (and I do mean yore) indicate a wide variety of spellings. Are we just moving backwards?

[Meredith "Riot" Nudo]

I teach English as well, frequently to students in my own age bracket, and was shocked that I had to use class time to explain WHY "LOLs" and "OMGs" were inappropriate for formal papers. They're allowed to use internet-speak in their free-form journal writing - which I've informally designated the "First Amendment" project since almost anything goes - but in anything beyond that it's banned.

Other English teachers have started declaring now "the end of the language as we know it," but I think that's a little cynical. If something such as a language gets deconstructed (which one can argue internet-speak is a form of), it invariably undergoes a reconstruction later on. We can sort of see this as a period of transition and comparative chaos before it cycles back to something more comfortable that pleases all parties.

[Yvette Kelly]

I totally agree.I cannot believe the spelling I see everywhere and it looks like correct spelling is not so important nowadays and no one is embarassed about not being able to spell.I am typing this ever so slowly in order to avoid spelling mistakes because that would be embarassing (for me at least).I bought a book recently where each and every single word "to" was spelt as "too".That irritated me so much that I could not really get into the book.I mean really aren't there people who read through these things before books get published?The book was written as first hand experience and I just could not sympathise (sympathize) with this victim.

[BarbaraZ]

There is a place for both... but as long as it is tolerated by the general public, it will not go away.

Spell check cannot spell check everything... to vs too. That tells me a human did not proofread that book. The same with many newspaper and magazine articles. People were removed and the computer was left to do the job... and it fails.

If people try to use their idea of 'in' spelling on a resume at any reputable business they will be in trouble. The same with a research paper or technical paper, so why is it missing such things as 'SHOOL ZONE' signs etc? The latter actually happened in my county!!

[Book Calendar]

There is no spell checker for blogs and typing is quick. It is easy to miss a few words here and there. I rather like the idea of having my own specific dialect depending on which web pages I am using. Maybe I can write with a Technoratian (philosophically mainstream geek) or Twitterian (quick and flighty) dialect.

[john]

They were five children in my family. The oldest brother and the youngest sister received a 100 grade on their spelling through the eighth grade, parochial school. Unfortunately I was a middle child. Thank God for spell check!

[pussreboots]

Firefox comes with a built in spell checker and certainly if you're using software like Dreamweaver or Word to write posts then you have access to two more spell checkers.

[Donna Lea Simpson]

My concern is so many seem to think spelling doesn't matter. Yes, it does, if we are to accurately convey our meanings. And not just spellings, but meanings of homonyms, too, and differences in meaning, like 'imply' as opposed to 'infer'. People worry so much about getting their point across (not 'there' or 'they're') but don't take the time to make their words and spelling correct, to help toward that end.

I blame the age of instant communication. People mistake quick for good, which is just as bad in communication as it can be in food.

[pussreboots]

Spelling was just as bad when I was a teen... back before "instant" communication.

[Dave Rosenthal]

Donna Lea: I imagine you face the issue in the nature of your writing about an earlier era: Should you use the old English spellings or go with modern versions. Was that a tough decision? What factors did you weigh?
Meredith and Book Calendar: I wonder how long the younger generation will keep the two types of writing separate. Inevitably, we seem to be headed to a new English -- a simpler, stripped down version. It's not surprising, considering that the language has been evolving for centuries. But will subtleties of the language will be wrung out by the need for speed.

[Donna Lea Simpson]

I always opt for clarity. The one thing you never want to do in fiction is make the reader stop and ask 'Is this a typo, or a word I've never seen before?' That jerks them out of the story. Also, by 1786 much of the old English spellings were formalized into ones we recognize.