Can you read this?
‘Aoccdrnig to rscheearch by the Lngiusiitc Dptanmeret 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 total 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’
Many adults are able to read this paragraph although it displays many spelling errors. It has been widely circulated on the Internet and on email since 2003 and is often used for or against the argument as to why spelling is important or not. But, it is a myth… Only fluent readers can figure out this passage. Reading in turn is based on an understanding of letters, the sounds they represent and the correct spelling of these sounds. Something that a teacher work many years on before their students are fluent readers.
What does correct spelling tell people about you?
In earlier years, spelling was a sign of being educated. Think of times where most people were illiterate and spelling were not universalized. If you had good spelling it was an indication that you attended school. Today, however, this is not the case. Poor spelling is now usually seen as laziness on the part of the writer, as they did not go through the trouble to proofread and correct their own work, or to use an electronic spell checker.
Reasons why spelling is important
Various resources highlight all or some of the following reasons why spelling is important:
- Communication: By following the same rules we can all understand what we read. Written text is an important way of communicating. Just consider the amount of news spread through text or the many text messages we all receive in a day or the lovely novel you read to relax after a busy day at work. If there were no rules regarding spelling and the use of words, all this would be impossible to understand.
- Comprehension: Good spelling facilitates understanding of the text read. Imagine if there was no difference in the spelling of rain, reign and rein. The meanings would be much harder to differentiate and time would be wasted trying to figure out what the meaning is.
- Future: to be honest... Job applications or curriculum vitaes full of spelling errors don’t make it far. Imagine an employer receives two resumes of candidates with the exact same qualifications and characteristics, but the one resume is filled with spelling errors. It’s just natural to give preference to the candidate who went through the trouble of submitting a flawless resume.
- Computer error: Computers make mistakes too, so we need to rely on our own spelling abilities to make sure it is correct. Many people argue that it is not necessary to enforce the correct spelling and spelling rules in our day and age as most written communication happens electronically, thus enabling the writer to use a spell checker. This brings its own difficulties. The spell checker will only identify words that have no meaning at all as well as correct some typing errors (e.g. t-e-h will be corrected to t-h-e). But if words exist they will not be corrected and the written text will not make sense (e.g. ‘surpassed’ instead of ‘surprised’ or ‘lessening’ instead of ‘listening’).
- Distraction: If a text is full of spelling errors, the reader loses focus trying to figure out what is said. This impacts on one of the most valuable resources, time. Imagine reading a scientific article with spelling errors – you would lose the gist of the article because most of your attention would be directed to the spelling errors.
- Impressions last: If someone reads your written work and it has many spelling errors, it does not leave a good impression. If you read this article and it was filled with spelling errors, you would probably not be interested in reading any of the other articles written by me, as you would assume it would also be filled with errors.
We can therefor say with confidence that correct spelling and spelling rules are here to stay. Good use, and even mastery, of our complex languages does not have to be a thing of the past or for a reserved few. We can use the knowledge gained from years of research and experience as well as ever developing technology to teach each student to spell well and in the end read and write fluently.
You might want to read about how to use a dictionary.
