Many posters in the Comments and Suggestions forum have indicated that the posts which garner the most interest and respect are those where the poster has taken care to use correct spelling. Is it a priority for the majority of posters here?

I have to say "other." It is somewhat useful. I use the SpellCheck (when I remember) and it saves me from some of my more egregious mistakes. (Did I spell "egregious" right? I won't know until I check.) To be sure, the content of one's opinion is far more important than the grammar and spelling; but correct use of language ensures that one will communicate more clearly and that one's opinion will be taken more seriously.

Suppose I had written this instead:

i dunno spellchecks' ok i guess but not to big a deal 4 me lol

You may be tempted to ignore whatever I say. As a courtesy, I try to communicate with reasonable care.

That's the Gettysburg Address compared to some of the posts at my last forum (Whistle Stopper.) Count me as one for whom spell checking, proper grammar, and a generally "adult" level of writing ability are very high priorities.

Although i really dont use it, i believe it is a valuable asset to AD.

I answered "I really don't need it" since my spelling is good enough that I very rarely need to use it. But it does come in handy once in a while and I'm glad it's there.

As long as it phonetically close I can make out the word. Now using words out of context and making me read it repeatedly to understand what the poster is trying to say is somewhat annoying.

I'm with Izdaari: don't need it all that often, but like it when I DO need it. Would be good to have a way to add words into the dictionary, though.

Actually you can, amf. When spelling checking, if it comes across a word it doesn't recognize but you are 100% sure it's spelled correctly, simply hit the "Learn" button and it will remember that word. Please know, however, that the learning system is based on cookies so if you use multiple computers, you will have to teach it the same word for each. Also, if you delete your cookies, you will lose all the learned words. Hope that helps

I would like to thank all of you who use the spellchecker, proper grammar and punctuation. Your words have meaning and depth to you. It's often difficult to articulate that meaning and depth to others. The chance that readers will comprehend your words is greatly increased when you show you care enough to present them well. Thanks!

Additionally, if you find words that are correctly spelled, but flagged as incorrect by the spellchecker, please send me a PM or start a topic in Comments and Suggestions so I can get them added.

Mike

Yes, spell-checker is a great tool! I am not too proud to admit that it has "saved" the day for me on various forums and writing emails. Then, there are the few times I forgot to use it and was

I don't really find that I need it much, since my spelling is generally pretty good (if tending towards British forms - colour, sceptic, etc).

I do find the spellchecker useful, however, as my typing is a good deal worse than my spelling. If they ever invent a spell-checker that can tell from the context whether I wanted to say "form" or "from", I'm buying it.

Considering that I have 900+ posts here and 700+ there, I think I might be uniquely qualified to make this comparison. I see no difference in the overall level of spelling and grammar between the two sites.

More to the point, I think it's natural that people pay more attention to posts that are written at a slightly higher level. We've all seen enough incoherent ramblings that are common online. We all learn to filter them out. It's only natural that people would begin to associate proper spelling and grammar with posts that contain more facts or insight, or that make a more compelling argument, and of course those are the posts anyone in their right mind would prefer to read. It might not even be a conscious decision. I can tell at a glance if a poster doesn't capitalize sentences, or if they overuse ... or smileys. Before I've even begun to read, a part of my brain is telling me to start skimming and get to the next post that shows more promise. The more people typically read in a day, the more likely they are to apply such heuristics that - usually - help them find the best material quickly.

The correlation between the quality of the presentation and the quality of the content is far from perfect, but it's very real. People take advantage of it when they read, and should therefore do so when they write as well.

When posters identify themselves as professionals, especially in the field of academics, yet consistently misspell fairly common words in posts, I find their claims less credible.

I live for spell chekc. :geek Now me needs gramar chekc!

I think I hit fairly close- but spell check is slow, and I get tired of it. Now, I don't use hookt on fonics type spelling, but I do frequently switch my "I"s and "E"s, my "O"s and "E"s like "poeple" (hey, did I get that one?)

Spelling is a major priority for me. I normally do not like
to brag about my accomplishments (there's too few of 'em),
but this thread is quite befitting.

When I was in the fourth grade I won 2nd place in a city-wide
spelling competition. It was down to 3 of us, and the boy before
me missed on the word "spaghetti". My heart jumped when he
missed because I knew that I knew how to spell that word.
The funny thing is that I do not remember the word that I missed,
that made me come in 2nd place. I was ecstatic to have made it
that far.

Anyway, I hope I don't come across like a braggart, it's just that
spelling words correctly is very important to me. I do not
use the spell check function. I keep a dictionary with me at
all times, and if I am unsure of a word's spelling, I look it up.

I do not give much credit to posts that have a lot of misspelled
words. Misuse or lack of punctuation is another turn-off.

I don't really care if I'm judged by my spelling or not - though I do tend to be fairly conscious of it (even when I'm kinda deliberately using slangy contractions like "kinda"). I use SpellCheck in almost every post - not for spelling errors per se, but for typos and transpositions.

I find capitalization (all lower case) and webbreviations (lmao @ u2) more irritating than spelling errors, though. Some of the best composed contributions are riddled with misspelled words.

When it comes to grammar, I appreciate people who at least make an effort. On the other hand, I tend to be overly punctilious about grammar (or at least some of its aspects), which I imagine can also be irritating.

Ultimately, the content is far more important than the form - though it helps if the form itself is at least easily read.

Perhaps misspellings are the mark of a professional, considering that professionals often have secretaries and administrative assistants to deal with mundane deals such as grammar, spelling, etc., in their paper communication.

Even television news reports are rife with bad grammar, redundancy, and misspellings on the crawl.

Since this post I have started to use spellcheck. Although I thought I was pretty good Ive realized I have common mispellings like responsibility-responsability(wrong) or ammendment/amendment (right). 'ie/ei's' errors can be common also. I am shocked, Dammit! I considered myself to be a good speller.

I do use 'IMO', and think thats ok internet speak. I dont punctuate Ims and didnt, donts cants etc because of fast typing. I may never get to this.

I take peoples views much more seriously that a least try, and its so much easier on the brain and eyes.

Spell check is a HUGE benefit to me. I surprize myself at how many words I consistently misspell the same way. Without this wonder tool I believe that many would have a harder time reading what I write, but more importantly have a harder time taking me seriously. I would at least like those who don't take me seriously to do so because of my opinions, not because of my poor education.

By the way. Without spell check, this post would have looked like this:

Spell check is a HUGE benifit to me. I suprize myself at how many words I consistantly mispell the same way. Without this wonder tool I believe that many would have a harder time reading what I write, but more importantly have a harder time taking me seriously. I would at least like those who don't take me seriously to do so because of my opinions, not because of my poor education.

Nothing terribly wrong here, but I much prefer people to think I am literate.

How Shavian of you! George Bernard Shaw advocated eliminating apostrophes from contractions unless they affected the pronunciation - so he would agree with cant and dont and couldnt, but would still use "I'm" rather than "Im". I would tend to agree, but through force of habit, I still usually use apostrophes. One of the oddities about SpellCheck here, though, is that there are a number of contractions - "would've" and "I'd", for example - which it doesn't recognize as words. Are these incorrect? It doesn't recognize "SpellCheck" either.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::


I'm surprised that "surprize" makes it past SpellCheck. Is that right??

I sure hope the content of my posts is not judged by my spelling because it would be rare to find something I wrote that didn't have some kind of an error along those lines. Its been my experience that often when people feel strongly about something the semantics and grammer (to say nothing of the structure) are sacrificed. Recently I posted something that was meant to be an abbreviation and was interpruted as being potentially inflamatory. What it was, in fact, was pure carelessness. Honestly, I think we are should be our own harshest editors but at times we all need someone to point out our blind spots. Dotting the I or crossing the T may be good writting but sometimes careless spelling or wording can have serious consequences. I for one don't mind someone expressing their good judgement but judgment is a very different thing if you know what I mean, and you can discern the difference.

QUOTE (overlandsailor @ Feb 29 2004, 09:40 AM)
Spell check is a HUGE benefit to me. I surprize myself at how many words I consistently misspell the same way.




How Dare you Judge me!!! I can't believe it, are you some kind of Liguistic Tyrant who would ban all speech that was not perfect in it's appearance?!?!?

<joke>

Sorry, couldn't resist. The truth probably is that I added "Surprize" after performing the spell check. But lets make sure.

Surprize (ran spell check here)

Huh.... Spell check did not find a problem with this. Dictionary.com however seems to think it is mis-spelled and should be spelled suprise.

Well, guess I didn't make a mistake at all.

It is the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy I tell you!!! Those Leftist Computer Geeks have manipulated the spell checker to make quasi-conservatives like myself look like Idiots!!!

I DEMAND JUSTICE!!!!!!!!!!!!

<joke>

Sorry, couldn't resist again. Seems I am having some sort of issue today. Well, one worst then usual

Yeah, I had run SpellCheck on "surprize" before posting that - which is why I said I was "surprised that 'surprize' makes it past SpellCheck". So I wasn't really being a judgemental Linguistic Tyrant. Well, maybe a little.


Heh - take it up with Leftist Computer Geek Mike.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=surprize

I find it extremely useful as I can be a dreadful speller at times. The trouble is I'm a scatter brain too, and often forget to check my spelling before I submit. Still, a very handy tool.

I'm willing to overlook the occasional spelling error, but I have seen a lot of posts recently that are riddled with them, and I tend to not take those posts very seriously. I just don't understand why someone would take the time to do the necessary research involved in debating many of the topics on this board while simultaneously being too lazy to read through their posts before submitting them to a public board.

The time that it takes to use the spellchecker is miniscule compared to the amount of time that it takes to decipher a poorly written post...

I don't know if this makes me judgemental or a linguistic tyrant, but spelling errors bust me up. It can also be psychologically revealing about the poster. I laugh just as hard at myself when I make such a mistake. BTW the spell checker missed 'judgemental' in this very post. It is so commonly spelled this way, I guess it is becoming the norm. There was a time when it wasn't. Language is a very organic entity, and can change with its usage.

I'm sorry, but I cannot help it. I automatically take the post as not as serious if it has continuous spelling errors in it.

Now, I know I do it sometimes also - which is probably why I am trying so hard not to do it right now - but we need to at least read back over the post to make sure it is not just horrible.

I can spell, but my fingers sometimes get out of sync and I transpose letters. It happens a lot when I try to go too fast, and most often with left hand due to some nerve damage (cubital, not carpal). But if I look at the keyboard when typing, I can usually get it right the first time.
Good grammar and correct spelling does lend more credibility to your arguement, as it generally indicates at least a higher level of education and hopefully a higher level of intellect as well.

We are missing the option, "I only use it when I'm not in a hurry."

I make lotsa spelling errors, so IMHO it's a good thing that we have it. When I do a big long serious post, I usually do spell check and prove-read it before I post. Other times, I'll post something, then come back later and find something wrong with it and make use of the edit function. Oh well, that's just me.