Friday, January 23, 2009

To spell or not to spell, that is the question.


Most of you who read this blog on a regular basis know that if it wasn't for spell check my posts would read like some ancient Egyptian language. And even with it, I sometimes manage to misspell a word or two. I must confess that I am one of those people who thinks that spelling is way overrated. (I think those little crumb snatchers who enter that national spelling bee every year are aliens. Caoutchouc: c-a-o-u-t-c-h-o-u-c-. Sheesh! ) Who cares if a word is missing a letter or two? If the reader understands what the writer is saying it's all good in my book. And if the writer wants to introduce his or her own words into the conversation, that's fine too.


Anywhooo, I was over at the excellent web site called Crooks & Liars, and one commenter, Floyd George, left the following:


"I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulacity uesdnatnrd what I was rdgniegThe phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,it deosn't mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a wrod are,the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the first and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Therset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. this is bcuseae the huamm mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe Amzanig huh?And you awlyas tohguth sipeling was ipmorantt. "


Now I thought that was amazing, not only because I understood every word of that paragraph, but because it proves my point about the inconsequentialness [is that a word?] of lining up our letters in just the right order. Hell, it looks to me like if we get the first and the last letter in the word we are good to go.

So all of you lazy dyslectic writers like moi can take heart, we are going to take back this writing thing in our own inappreciable and understated way. A misspelled wrd here a misspelled wrd thre, and bfre you know it, the spell police will all be out of work.


I can't wait.

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

I here you, filde :-)

Anonymous said...

Dyslectics of the World Untie.

Anonymous said...

eggzakarie, Fn. Watt a finy postte.

zmartprot

Bob said...

I've always had a visual sense of spelling, Like, if you asked me to spell chrisansamum aloud, I might not get it, but if you put it on a page next to chrysanthemum, I know which one is correct. So my school papers had a lot of crossouts & erasures.

Anonymous said...

inconsequentiality

momo said...

4 sur!

Anonymous said...

Read ye olde english sometime. It's wonderfully decadent and the spelling is obviously olde. Good times for all.

szpork

rainywalker said...

Field,
Sorry, I am not the greatest speller but we are to easy on the schools in this country. Easy doesn't get it, they need to work harder. Thats why we aren't number one anymore in education.
rainy

field negro said...

Rainywalker, I thought we weren't number one because of math. :)

Bob, at least you can spell "chrysanthemum". Or is it the other one?

Blinders Off said...

Hmmm, even with brain lesions I read that paragraph with ease.

I use to be a spelling bee whiz kid way back when :)

Ray Bridges said...

Sorry, it gave me a headache after gthe first sentence.

I'm old school: I try to spell as correctly as the grammar I attempt to use. Good grammar and good spelling raise the use of language to that of art. Oh sure, not everyone who puts a brush to canvas is an artist, but we really won't know until we experience it, now will we?

Ellen Kimball said...

Hi field,

Long time, no talk! I had to chime in because I am a champion speller and it has always come easily to me. I get a lot of people mad at me when I point out spelling errors, especially my kids, who are long gone from my home on a permanent basis.

But spelling is still important to me. I even fought with the Clairol company of Stamford, CT, where I worked. They spelled one of their colors -- ARTIC BLONDE -- on everything. They eventually decided it was too difficult to reprogram their computers for the correct spelling (A-R-C-T-I-C).

I also fought for SMOKY BROWN to substitute for SMOKEY, but that one went nowhere.

I will be 70 years old this spring, and I don't give a damn about texting, posting, keyboarding, and shorthand English. I always take pride in what I do. Other people can put up their English, but I try to NEVER make a math mistake. (That is my weakness and have married three men who are good with numbers.)

I have lots of fun at foreign restaurants reading the translated menus. I love Jay Leno's "TONIGHT" Show featuring misprinted newspapers, magazines and advertisement.

One I remember for about five decades is this advertisement:

"FOR SALE: VASE BY LADY SLIGHTLY CRACKED. 555-5555"

If you want to have fun, go to:

http://www.engrish.com

... and see how the world treats our beloved language!

Peace, love and happiness,

Ellen Kimball

PS. WILL YOU PEOPLE STOP TALKING ABOUT MICHELLE'S OUTFITS AND GLOVES... AND START TALKING ABOUT HER BRAINS AND COMPETENCE? ...

Whew... that feels better.

Ellen

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Ellen:

"...STOP TALKING ABOUT MICHELLE'S OUTFITS AND GLOVES... AND START TALKING ABOUT HER BRAINS AND COMPETENCE? ..."


LOL! I totally agree with you, Ellen.

rainywalker said...

Field,
We aren't number one in anything and I need to stop being so serious.
rainy

field negro said...

Wow Ellen, thanks for the 411 about your background. You are old school so you are cool with me. I can respect your desire to do things a certain way.

Blinders Off, you were one of those kids? Gee, I never would have thought. :)

Yeah rainy...lighten up.Life is too short for proper spelling all the time. Still, you are right about our kids needing to buckle down in order to compete in the world.

I guess the moral of this post is that children shouldn't look to the field as a role model. :)

Christopher said...

The spelling and grammar Nazis really annoy me.

For one thing, to correct someone's spelling is elitist. For another thing, has it occurred to them that the writer is possibly disabled or sight impaired?

Often, when I'm flying around, trying to support bloggers by leaving comments, I'm doing it on the run. I have 15 minute here or there and I'm rushing around like a man on crack. It's on those days I tend to make spelling errors.

So what? People need to just get over themselves.

Anonymous said...

The English language is continually evolving, and what is 'unacceptable' today may not be tomorrow. That said, mis-spellings and grammatical errors just drive me up the wall.

Even the best musicians occasionally flub a note, but they're always trying to perfect their art. Approach language as a fine musical instrument, one to be cherished and protected, and you won't go wrong.

oldfatherwilliam said...

Language is a tool. You want yours sharp or dull? Also what John B. said.

Christopher Chambers said...

Feild (smile):

Some standards must remain despite "evolution" of the language. Frankly, what's going on now ain't evolution. Evolution implies advancement and adaptation, not lazy, dumb sh*t.

Anonymous said...

incosequencicalities (?)
yuh right still king, if them understand what yuh saying is all good...in an informal setting, like pon a blog like yours...innah official setting the i's haffi dot and the t dem cross...
as a yaad man yuh supposed to member that as the difference between how yuh speak when yuh out mongst yuh fren them and when yuh at home and yuh parents have visitors

Susan Gray said...

Field,
I saw your picture on here...you are a good looking man who obviously takes pride in his appearance. Your choice of topics on this site reveals an intelligence in being able to discuss politics, sports, humor, and current events. You do not get 50+ comments a post by being an idiot. Spelling and correct use of the English language are just another measuring stick of a person's character. We all make errors occassionally, but when you do it consistently, one begins to wonder. And Chris, I am usually right there with you but it is not elitist, it's called educated.

Woozie said...

I do not approve of your de-evolutionary laziness! I don't even know what to say. Shame, shame, shame. Malcolm X does not approve either!

field negro said...

LOL! sfd928 & woozie, I knew you two would be dissapointed with my no spell stance. :)

John B, Jazz musicians don't "flob notes". Think about it.

Anonymous said...

I agree that spelling is important -- it's a matter not just of precision in communication, but of demonstrating one's competence and understanding of a topic. This becomes even more critical when the topic involves science -- for a simple example, "ethane" and "ethene" are related but different chemical compounds. Mixing them up will certainly trash an experiment, and maybe the experimenter (BOOM! ;-) ). I'm sure you can find similar examples in law....

The piece you quote has been kicking around for years, but in fact it's bogus. The "random" changes are nothing of the sort, they're constrained to leave the words recognizable. Truly random changes will rapidly make a text unreadable, and/or drastically mutate any remaining sense.

Of course, the matter of when it's appropriate to publicly correct someone is a completely different issue -- that's a matter of etiquette and dominance. Picking on someone's occasional typo is just irritating. It's doubly so in those Net forums where comments are usually dashed off quickly -- let alone if there's no "preview" feature! Sometimes I silently correct obvious typos in a quote, just to avoid highlighting someone else's error.

Anonymous said...

PS: A good reader can usually see the difference between the writings of a semi-literate, a psychotic, and a dyslexic (or fumblefingers).

I don't know that I could explain the distinctions, but the three conditions produce very different patterns of errors. With a few years of experience on the Net, you can learn to recognize them intuitively.

tjwash said...

Field-spell checkers are awesome, everybody should use won.

field negro said...

"BOOM!" Well damn it David, if you put it that way. :)

La♥audiobooks said...

LOL. I hardly spell, but I need to PROOF READ more often. Now that's my problem. I type very fast but my brain goes faster, so i tendto do thigns like this. Sometimes I seem to miss typing in certain (his, it, is, the, at) words in a sentence all together.

Now math is my major problem, I can only do the basic subtract, multiply, divide and add. That's as far as I can go. (Who on earth came up with the idea to mix alphabets with numbers? Geezus)

Anyway, I have seen some people make grammatical errors that spell check can't help with, like "isle-aisle" or "mist-midst" or "lose-loose" or "their-there" etc..

What cracks me up are people who try to mockingly correct the spelling of others because they can't think of a better "come back".

Now Field, could you please get rid of that security captcha, it really gets to me. Even when I get it right, I almost always have to do everything all over three four times before my post appear. It doesn't happen to me anywhere else on blogger :)

Anonymous said...

English is a difficult language. Not as difficult as Chinese or Japanese or Korean maybe, but spelling in English is very irregular due to all the borrowing from other languages. Back in the early 1900s there was a move to simplify and regularize spelling; Andrew Carnegie was one of its proponents.

For anyone who is really concerned about their on-line spelling, I recommend switching to Firefox for your browser--it has a built-in spellchecker.

browngrl77 said...

I hate blogs that have people correcting other people mistakes.....its like get over yourself......

Mr. D. said...

I'm with you on this field. As a teacher, I don't really focus on spelling that much. I take the spell it close enough that a spellchecker knows what you're talking about for most spelling mistakes.

Also, while we're talking about overly hyped school skills. How about handwriting? Specifically cursive. Who uses that anyway? Kids should be learning typing before cursive really.

field negro said...

"Kids should be learning typing before cursive really."

Amen Mr. D! And don't even get me started on my handwriting(only my assistant and Mrs. Field knows what the hell I try yo write) that's another post for another day.

La~incognita, I co sign with much of what you said. As for the security cap...I would get rid of it, but I always have a probblem with spammers. :(

Anonymous said...

I too received that paragraph in an email recently. Yes, I too understood it but in the end it gave me a headache. I would rather people learn to read and write like many who before us died trying to accomplish during slavery and jim crow times. my children will learn the correct way to read and write along with several dictionaries in my home. Without spell check to lean on.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I see Beyonce is the House Negro of the Day. First, I am a descent of Sheffields of Virginia. My family were house slaves. We have pictures of our Black family that goes back over 150 years. As far as I know we were never field negros. So using that term for her I just dont quite understand especially since I dont think she can sing (a great dancer and stage performer, but singer-no). Trust, I have been called stuck up on occassions but Beyonce definitely would have not been welcome in my house. lol. Also, isnt Etta James alive, why couldnt she sang her own song. It would have sounded much better.

Anonymous said...

Az lawng as u can spel nekid run on Brawd steet, we cool. Wen it gonna happen?

Beverlyism

Unknown said...

There is a serious movement of people trying to change the whole idea of spelling. With the onset of text messaging, they argue that precision spelling has out lived its usefulness.

On the other hand those researchers must be a bunch of dyslexics and are trying to take the world down with them.

EzMun said...

Ohh Field. You just trying to cop out. Next thing you'll tell us is that your spelling issue is really a spelling "disorder." So now we'll be referring to you as spelling-challenged. Yeah right.

Anonymous said...

Standardized spelling isn't absolutely necessary for understanding, but it does make everything much easier to read. Sure I understood that one paragraph from Floyd George, but it took me about twice as long as any of your other paragraphs. Might just be me, but I have a much easier time reading words I don't have to decipher. Then there are homonyms -- shear and sheer, discreet and discreet; their, there and they're -- that are impossible to tell apart unless they're spelled properly. Can't people tell them apart from context? Yeah, usually, but spelling properly is a fail-safe against being misunderstood, and thinking "from context" takes time and brainpower. I try not to play gotcha, but don't I have a point?

Also: fuck cursive.

Unknown said...

the answer to the question field is... to spell... bad spelling burns my eyes however i pick my battles when i have the urge to correct someone.. everyone makes mistakes..
i believe the spelling in texts evolved because of the 150 word limit on most phones.. it is really a 'short hand' and not a language..??

EzMun said...

Field,
Forgot to comment on your new Lark Voorhees pic. Your girl is looking super sexy in that one.

Jennifer Bartell Boykin said...

I teach juniors high school English and these little crumb snatchers can't spell to save their lives. Half of them don't even know how to use a dictionary. I think it's just laziness or like you, just waiting for the technology to do it for them. I guess those kids grow up to be adults who can't spell. And don't get me started with the homophones (write, right)! But who's perfect, right? Your perspective on politics is refreshing ... That's field negro behavior.

Kofi Bofah said...

I have receive 1,000,000 text messages that make Floyd George look like a Rhodes scholar.

ch555x said...

I've been seeing typos pop up on news-tickers the last few years...must be spreading!

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