What is the etiquette about proper spelling nowadays?

Question

I'm 60, and remember almost every school emphasized spelling to the point of everyone had spelling bees. That's changed, big time. My sister works in the Fed, and has seen college applications for employment that disgusted her with all the mistakes in spelling and grammar. I've been having fun answering questions on Yahoo, but find myself turned off by horrific spelling and grammar. Most I won't bother to answer, and that is probably not right...but for heaven's sakes, this venue does have spell check. Now, am I being over sensitive, old fashioned, to want people who are approaching folk like me to spend a little time to communicate with good spelling and grammar? In a world where our nation is falling behind so many others in levels of education, in general health, in levels of physical fitness, could our falling away from integrity in adhering to communication conventions be another sign of our nation just not caring anymore?

Answer 1

I'm the wrong side of 60 myself, and I too am appalled at the shockingly low standards with written English language. But I would say, as a sort of Devil's Advocate for today's youngsters, that computer spell-checks are contributing in a major way to the decline of good spelling and punctuation.



This is what a person in Edinburgh, Scotland, submitted to the vagaries of his spell check. It didn't even flag up one error!!!



"While the banned plaid in the background, we fore mails plus my Anti Flow had dinner today. Eye eight a relay big stake pi, with collie flour and beat route. Johnny, my sun, is libel to put on wait, sew for his mane coarse he settled for been salad with plane bred. Will, who is forte and not trying Toulouse wait, had soused heron plus too sweets - jamb roly-poly and bred pudding.

"Tommy, hour senior member, eight venison from a dear farm in sails, served with a read wine sauce. Anti Flow, who wares a flour in her died blew hare, eight soul with its head and tale."



Beware computer spell checks! But enjoy a good laugh at this!



I've also noticed that apostrophes are wrongly suggested by spell checks, with hardly any youngsters now seeming to know that "it's" represents "it is". So they write "It's function is to..." not even realising they should have written "Its function is to..." And I have deliberately ignored this American spell check for my rendition of 'realising' because I'm sticking to English English!



Finally, I have to disagree with the people above who think it's all right to use abbreviated text message-speak and to switch to 'proper English' for important documents etc. They fail to understand that their daily use of text gibberish will ruin their standards of written English so that they won't even spot when they are slipping into the errors they have habituated. Until a solid basis of sound English is established, no children should be allowed to slip into texting sloppiness.

Answer 2

If it's a quick message, like text or twitter, proper spelling isn't as important. Even "text-speak" is acceptable. eg. "wear U at?"



If it's an email, try to use proper grammar and spelling, even if it's to ask "where are you?"



However, if it's anything formal, like a formal paper/report, application - even if it's just in email - then you darn well better make sure you're using proper grammar and spelling. In fact, nowadays there's no reason for spelling errors anymore since many programs come with a spell-check feature. Of course this won't save you from making mistakes like using the wrong "to / too / two" or using "loose" instead of "lose".



MS Word even has a grammar checker, although it prefers to write everything in a passive voice for some reason...but at least it'll be grammatically correct.



So, no, you aren't being overly sensitive. It really annoys me to see folks post in text-speak or make ridiculous spelling errors. It shows they're either uneducated or just don't care.



The only exception is if English is not the person's first language, but even then you can pretty much tell who's trying to use proper English when they're still learning, versus someone who just thinks its ok to type in a whole question in t3xt sp34ch. Sorry kids, it doesn't make you look cool or l33t. It just makes you look capital-D-umb.

Answer 3

I find the spell checker is really screwed up lately, coming on only once in a great while I copy and paste to Word, then bring back the corrected copy. Even the spell checker misses WW's that are spelled right in a context the grammar checker overlooks, like 'yo' for 'you'.



Another problem is the numbers of ESL people who ask questions here amd ignore the spell checker because they lack the skill level to make use of it even when available.



I think back to the demo where every word in a long paragraph is misspelled, but people with English as a First Language still get the meaning.



On that basis I take the questions, figure out the meaning, and answer with all spelling and grammar corrected as best I can.



It makes this more of challenge and provides a greater feeling of accomplishment when your answer is chosen as best.

Answer 4

I am a (relatively) young twenty-something. It's fine to bend conventional grammar and spelling in quick, casual conversations between friends, but not when some degree of formality is required. Many people can switch registers depending on the situation.



Texts and tweets are restricted to 160 and 140 characters respectively. Abbreviations and creative re-spellings were likely invented out of necessity.



Yahoo is open to members of all ages. Some people have their spell-checker set to a different language. Others aren't native English speakers. There will always be a range of spelling and grammar styles here.



Unlike dictionaries, I suspect that spell-check encourages people to mix similar words (e.g. poured/pored, their/there/they're, piqued/peaked and even shuttered/shuddered!). If spell-check doesn't detect it, it must be correct, right?



In all seriousness, some text-speech may be standard in a hundred years. The Oxford Dictionary already includes "OMG" and "LOL."

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/291168



For a historical example, "hello" wasn't spelt with an 'e' until the 1800's. It was only proper to use it on the telephone, not face-to-face. By the 1920's, one lady felt it could be used to greet a very intimate friend on very informal occasions only.

http://books.google.ca/books?pg=PA19&dq=emily+post+hello&client=firefox-a&id=HhAYAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=&f=false



Fast forward to the present and young people are starting to LOL face-to-face with their friends. It still sounds very informal. Perhaps grandmothers will LOL with their grandchildren in 2100. It's rather disturbing to think about.



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I would like to disagree with the last part of Sasi's comment below. No teacher promotes swear words, slang or text-speak, yet children still learn them from their peers. Therefore, those who acquire sound English do so in spite of everything they are exposed to. Children are also taught that slang, swearing, etc. are inappropriate. However, there are no editors proofreading private conversations. Non-standard English will survive there.