Ability to Spell

[IrishEyes]

Originally Posted by Tormod

I'm like that...read read read read read read... Life would be so boring without books.

But I get really pissed off when I find spelling mistakes in books that I read. I have actually done part-time work as a proofreader and I know that one or two mistakes are sort of "required", but when you get on on every few pages it's painful.

emphasis added

Ok, here's something that I'd like to throw out there...
Is there a difference between spelling mstiakes and typing mstiakes? That's where I often find myself. It's not that I don't know how to spell a word correctly. there are very few words that I use on a regular basis that I can not spell. However, I often type the words wrong. For this purpose, I find a 'proofreading' program would be useful. I just don't like the idea of a 'spell-checker'.

Like Tormod, I get really angry (ok, totally pissed) when I find spelling and/or grammar mistakes in books. I know that humans write the books, but damn it all, somebody is paid to check that they are correct. It just galls me when I see something spelled incorrectly. Frankly, I think it is offensive. It is actually one of my biggest pet peaves.

I also think that writing only works if you are willing to check your work, or have someone else check it. Otherwise, you may just continue to make the same mistakes. Red ink on my paper worked really well for me. It was actually one of my best motivators in school - to have less red on a returned paper than anyone else. Geez, I sound a bit competitive, eh?

[Drip Curl Magic]

Originally Posted by IrishEyes

Ok, here's something that I'd like to throw out there...
Is there a difference between spelling mstiakes and typing mstiakes? That's where I often find myself. It's not that I don't know how to spell a word correctly. there are very few words that I use on a regular basis that I can not spell. However, I often type the words wrong. For this purpose, I find a 'proofreading' program would be useful. I just don't like the idea of a 'spell-checker'.

This is something that has always ruffled my feathers. When people assume you are a dip that doesn't know how to spell- when it was just a simple typing pattern mix-up. We, as humans get used to using certain typing patterns(for example, when I went to type "pattern" just now, I ended up typing "patterson").

[BluesMan]

As I read some of the posts about spelling mistakes in books being irritating or making people mad my first thought was "that's silly".
Of course I then wondered what made me judgmental about the statements, and realized just last night while reading a book the author noted that the lead character placed the colt 45 six shooter on safety. Man that torqued me off that a famous author did not know any better and that his proof readers continued to allow this error.
Yup, the same type of error concerning firearms had been cropping up repeatedly in his novels.
Now why does that bother me? The reason must be that it interrupts the process of being part of the novel. We then remove our self from the flow of the story and critique the correctness of the text.
This may explain why some individuals are so critical of spelling errors in forums?
The good guy in me will write it off as excessive empathy for the reader

[C1ay]

BTW, how many of you were taught to spell dilemma, dilemna? I find this frequent misspelling in books and newspapers and many other places. Where did the spelling "dilemna" come from, some lost language?

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by C1ay

BTW, how many of you were taught to spell dilemma, dilemna? I find this frequent misspelling in books and newspapers and many other places. Where did the spelling "dilemna" come from, some lost language?

My dictionary says Latin from Greek & both with 2 m's. No doubt an anomolous misspelling passed down by some Rube Goldbergesc process of puffery & insect authority.

There is a difference in typing errors & misspellings; not all typing errors result in misspellings & all misspellings don't originate with typing errors.

I came, I saw, I spelt.

[Mercury]

Originally Posted by infamous

When I checked my dictionary for the spelling of embarrasing, I noticed there were two r's instead of only one as I had initially wrote it in this post.

It is embarrasssing.

[TheBigDog]

Originally Posted by Turtle

___Reading does not appear sufficient to improve spelling, rather writing is necessary to improving spelling.
___On a side note, while Hypography has improved my spelling, it generally has not increased my vocabulary. I find my dictionary the surrest source for both increasing my vocabulary & confirming spelling.

That is one of the things I have been getting out of Hypography - sharpening my writing skills. It is something I was soft on for many years of my life. I am trying to do so much writing that it becomes easier to do. Practice, practice, practice...

Bill

[InfiniteNow]

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Or rather...

According to a researcher (sic) at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself but the word as a whole.

I have been looking for an example of this since you opened the thread... Tnhak goondnses, I fnially fuond it.

http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~mattd/Cmabrigde/

It's cool. They also demonstrate a similar effect in other languages.

[IrishEyes]

I have been looking for an example of this since you opened the thread... Tnhak goondnses, I fnially fuond it.

Yes, I was wondering when someone would post that.
And while the study is correct in that my brain is able to decipher that mess with no problem, it nearly gives me a headache! I see the letters, and they get put into their correct places in my head, but there is still that little voice that is SCREAMING that some idiot actually published something with so many spelling errors in it.
Interestingly, it does not bother me in the least when I read a book (like Huck Finn, or There Eyes Were Watching God), and the spelling is really bad, but it's bad for a reason - for instance, that's how the characters in the book spoke.
However, my 2nd oldest daughter read the Junie B. Jones books for a while, and they really ticked me off. I don't think it helps a child to spell better when half the words in the book are intentionally spelled incorrectly. If ever there was a series that made me want to throw them all in the trash - Junie B. was it.

[BluesMan]

Flowers for Algernon
and
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Great books, with intended errors.

By the way I took some on-line tests and I'm not Dyslexic....So I must just be lazy.