Comments on: Some consequences of bad spelling

By: LA

LA — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 22:00:59 +0000

Randy, I cheered when I saw your post. That effect/affect problem is one that I notice all the time. It’s really irritating. I feel like one of these days I’m going to be infected by it and no longer know how to use them correctly.

By: dave heasman

dave heasman — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 15:11:42 +0000

“For me it’s not intuitive why extensions is with an s not a t” It isn’t intuitive, it’s Latin. I hope.

By: Keith M Ellis

Keith M Ellis — Sun, 08 Feb 2004 18:25:06 +0000

Indeed it probably was. In contrast to Hebrew. Aha. That’s twice recently on CT I didn’t realize something was a joke. I’m not this humourless in real life. Really. I promise. I do hate puns, though.

By: TomD

TomD — Sun, 08 Feb 2004 17:17:28 +0000

Maybe it was a joke!

By: Keith M Ellis

Keith M Ellis — Sun, 08 Feb 2004 11:50:27 +0000

“Since Polish and English used the same alphabet, anyone who could spell one language could spell the other.”

Could you elaborate on that? I don’t understand.

By: Dan Goodman

Dan Goodman — Sun, 08 Feb 2004 07:44:14 +0000

My grandfather, who grew up in Tsarist Poland, once mentioned that his first job in the US had been writing correspondence for a furniture company. I asked if he hadn’t had trouble with spelling. He explained why he hadn’t. One year, his Hebrew school had had a teacher who was literate in Polish. So, besides his Hebrew education, he’d had a year of learning to read and write Polish. Since Polish and English used the same alphabet, anyone who could spell one language could spell the other.

By: nnyhav

nnyhav — Sun, 08 Feb 2004 04:44:15 +0000

Misspellings in the lead editorials in the Wall Street Journal so far this year: 1) Confusing “jives” with “jibes” deserves gibes. 2) If anyone should know better than to confuse “principal” with “principle” … uh, wait, on second thought …

By: eszter

eszter — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 23:53:25 +0000

Thanks, Michael. It’s all part of research.;) I think it’s interesting that English is supposed to be a really easy language (and in many ways it is), but some things are so non-intuitive. My native language (Hungarian) is quite hard, but at least some things are consistent (e.g. it’s phonetic, which means spelling is relatively straight-forward for the most part.. although there are exceptions, but just a few once you’re learned the basic rulse). For me it’s not intuitive why extensions is with an s not a t.. which, of course, does not mean I shouldn’t know how to spell it, I’m just trying to figure out why I would’ve made the mistake. [UPDATE: I’ve corrected the spelling in the post.]

By: Michael Kremer

Michael Kremer — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 14:35:08 +0000

(gently) “extensions,” not “extentions”… Which just goes to show that we all make mistakes and that it’s pretty hard to catch them when we make them. (Or, possibly, this was a test, part of your research…)

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 11:27:53 +0000

I was once told of a dyslexic anarchist who was arrested after spray-painting SAMSH THE STATE! all over town – now there’s a consequence of bad spelling.

By: fyreflye

fyreflye — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 05:36:29 +0000

FWIW most of the bargains I’ve found on eBay received too few bids because they were listed in the wrong category.

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 04:56:29 +0000

I am surprised at how many highly-educated bloggers apparently don't understand the proper usage of affect and effect.

By: Keith M Ellis

Keith M Ellis — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 02:16:38 +0000

I was a terrible speller when I was young, a great mystery to parents and educators since I was a precocious reader. I’ve had to slowly but surely correct my spelling (in general) as I’ve aged, but I still make far too many errors. Last month Josh Marshall stunned me and linked to one of my blog entries…and, it figures, I hadn’t spell-checked it. The first two comments were complaints about my spelling. I felt like an idiot. I love Google’s spelling correction feature. I am very aware of it and use it for its intended purpose as well as a quick and handy spell-checker when I am uncertain about specific words. My intuition is that bad spellers greatly underestimate the social costs of their bad spelling. Resumes are the obvious example; but my perusing online personal ads provides another: I judge people pretty harshly. Some egregious misspelling and I cross them off my list. Which, possibly, is just fine with them.