Last week, the New York Times had a piece about the potential monetary losses resulting from bad spelling. The author discusses how some misspelled auction items on eBay sell for very little because few bidders find them.
Reading about the frequency of spelling mistakes on the Web was no shock to me. In fact, the geek that I am, I even ran analyses [pdf] in my dissertation to see what explains whether and how often people misspell words during their online actions.
I should take a step back and explain my project. I study people’s Web-use skills. For my dissertation project, I collected data on one hundred Internet users’ online abilities. Participants were a random sample of the Mercer County (NJ) Internet population. Although these people are more educated and come from families with higher income than the average American Internet user, the sample was likely representative of the county’s Net users. (I say “likely” because it is practically impossible to know for sure, but I did as much background research as possible to establish that this is highly likely.. see my dissertation (or contact me) for more on that.)
I asked people to come to a university research setting and perform tasks online. I asked them to look for various things (political candidate information, tax forms, local events, etc.) and recorded everything they did. Many of them made spelling mistakes. This certainly slowed people down, and in some cases it also meant that they were unable to complete certain tasks.
No one asked, but since I had the data, I figured I’d look to see what explains why some people make spelling mistakes and how often. I found [pdf] that those with less education were more likely to make spelling mistakes. However, the effect of education seemed to be mediated by computer use at work and experience with the Web. Regarding number of spelling mistakes, age also seemed to matter (older people made more mistakes), but again, computer use at work and experience with the Web mediated this effect. Explaining differences in typographical errors was a bit more interesting, but I’ll leave it to you to check that out on the tables. (I included a table with information about participants’ demographics in that file in case that’s of interest.)
In a forthcoming paper, I list some more examples of common mistakes people make online such as spaces in URLs, no spaces in multiple-term search queries, and mistaken top-level domain-name extensions. More importantly, I describe the classification and coding scheme I used for coding people’s online actions. Send me a note if you’d like a copy.
As for attempts by Google and others to highlight to people that they are making a spelling mistake, it’s useful to some but not to others. My experience observing dozens of average users was that many people don’t see such hints and because results show up even in response to misspelled queries people do not realize they made a mistake and proceed.. often not to the best of sources.
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.
I am surprised at how many highly-educated bloggers apparently don’t understand the proper usage of affect and effect.
FWIW most of the bargains I’ve found on eBay received too few bids because they were listed in the wrong category.
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.
(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…)
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.]
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 …
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.
“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.
Maybe it was a joke!
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.
“For me it’s not intuitive why extensions is with an s not a t”
It isn’t intuitive, it’s Latin. I hope.
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.
À Gauche
Jeremy Alder
Amaravati
Anggarrgoon
Audhumlan Conspiracy
H.E. Baber
Philip Blosser
Paul Broderick
Matt Brown
Diana Buccafurni
Brandon Butler
Keith Burgess-Jackson
Certain Doubts
David Chalmers
Noam Chomsky
The Conservative Philosopher
Desert Landscapes
Denis Dutton
David Efird
Karl Elliott
David Estlund
Experimental Philosophy
Fake Barn County
Kai von Fintel
Russell Arben Fox
Garden of Forking Paths
Roger Gathman
Michael Green
Scott Hagaman
Helen Habermann
David Hildebrand
John Holbo
Christopher Grau
Jonathan Ichikawa
Tom Irish
Michelle Jenkins
Adam Kotsko
Barry Lam
Language Hat
Language Log
Christian Lee
Brian Leiter
Stephen Lenhart
Clayton Littlejohn
Roderick T. Long
Joshua Macy
Mad Grad
Jonathan Martin
Matthew McGrattan
Marc Moffett
Geoffrey Nunberg
Orange Philosophy
Philosophy Carnival
Philosophy, et cetera
Philosophy of Art
Douglas Portmore
Philosophy from the 617 (moribund)
Jeremy Pierce
Punishment Theory
Geoff Pynn
Timothy Quigley (moribund?)
Conor Roddy
Sappho's Breathing
Anders Schoubye
Wolfgang Schwartz
Scribo
Michael Sevel
Tom Stoneham (moribund)
Adam Swenson
Peter Suber
Eddie Thomas
Joe Ulatowski
Bruce Umbaugh
What is the name ...
Matt Weiner
Will Wilkinson
Jessica Wilson
Young Hegelian
Richard Zach
Psychology
Donyell Coleman
Deborah Frisch
Milt Rosenberg
Tom Stafford
Law
Ann Althouse
Stephen Bainbridge
Jack Balkin
Douglass A. Berman
Francesca Bignami
BlunkettWatch
Jack Bogdanski
Paul L. Caron
Conglomerate
Jeff Cooper
Disability Law
Displacement of Concepts
Wayne Eastman
Eric Fink
Victor Fleischer (on hiatus)
Peter Friedman
Michael Froomkin
Bernard Hibbitts
Walter Hutchens
InstaPundit
Andis Kaulins
Lawmeme
Edward Lee
Karl-Friedrich Lenz
Larry Lessig
Mirror of Justice
Eric Muller
Nathan Oman
Opinio Juris
John Palfrey
Ken Parish
Punishment Theory
Larry Ribstein
The Right Coast
D. Gordon Smith
Lawrence Solum
Peter Tillers
Transatlantic Assembly
Lawrence Velvel
David Wagner
Kim Weatherall
Yale Constitution Society
Tun Yin
History
Blogenspiel
Timothy Burke
Rebunk
Naomi Chana
Chapati Mystery
Cliopatria
Juan Cole
Cranky Professor
Greg Daly
James Davila
Sherman Dorn
Michael Drout
Frog in a Well
Frogs and Ravens
Early Modern Notes
Evan Garcia
George Mason History bloggers
Ghost in the Machine
Rebecca Goetz
Invisible Adjunct (inactive)
Jason Kuznicki
Konrad Mitchell Lawson
Danny Loss
Liberty and Power
Danny Loss
Ether MacAllum Stewart
Pam Mack
Heather Mathews
James Meadway
Medieval Studies
H.D. Miller
Caleb McDaniel
Marc Mulholland
Received Ideas
Renaissance Weblog
Nathaniel Robinson
Jacob Remes (moribund?)
Christopher Sheil
Red Ted
Time Travelling Is Easy
Brian Ulrich
Shana Worthen
Computers/media/communication
Lauren Andreacchi (moribund)
Eric Behrens
Joseph Bosco
Danah Boyd
David Brake
Collin Brooke
Maximilian Dornseif (moribund)
Jeff Erickson
Ed Felten
Lance Fortnow
Louise Ferguson
Anne Galloway
Jason Gallo
Josh Greenberg
Alex Halavais
Sariel Har-Peled
Tracy Kennedy
Tim Lambert
Liz Lawley
Michael O'Foghlu
Jose Luis Orihuela (moribund)
Alex Pang
Sebastian Paquet
Fernando Pereira
Pink Bunny of Battle
Ranting Professors
Jay Rosen
Ken Rufo
Douglas Rushkoff
Vika Safrin
Rob Schaap (Blogorrhoea)
Frank Schaap
Robert A. Stewart
Suresh Venkatasubramanian
Ray Trygstad
Jill Walker
Phil Windley
Siva Vaidahyanathan
Anthropology
Kerim Friedman
Alex Golub
Martijn de Koning
Nicholas Packwood
Geography
Stentor Danielson
Benjamin Heumann
Scott Whitlock
Education
Edward Bilodeau
Jenny D.
Richard Kahn
Progressive Teachers
Kelvin Thompson (defunct?)
Mark Byron
Business administration
Michael Watkins (moribund)
Literature, language, culture
Mike Arnzen
Brandon Barr
Michael Berube
The Blogora
Colin Brayton
John Bruce
Miriam Burstein
Chris Cagle
Jean Chu
Hans Coppens
Tyler Curtain
Cultural Revolution
Terry Dean
Joseph Duemer
Flaschenpost
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Jonathan Goodwin
Rachael Groner
Alison Hale
Household Opera
Dennis Jerz
Jason Jones
Miriam Jones
Matthew Kirschenbaum
Steven Krause
Lilliputian Lilith
Catherine Liu
John Lovas
Gerald Lucas
Making Contact
Barry Mauer
Erin O'Connor
Print Culture
Clancy Ratcliff
Matthias Rip
A.G. Rud
Amardeep Singh
Steve Shaviro
Thanks ... Zombie
Vera Tobin
Chuck Tryon
University Diaries
Classics
Michael Hendry
David Meadows
Religion
AKM Adam
Ryan Overbey
Telford Work (moribund)
Library Science
Norma Bruce
Music
Kyle Gann
ionarts
Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Greg Sandow
Scott Spiegelberg
Biology/Medicine
Pradeep Atluri
Bloviator
Anthony Cox
Susan Ferrari (moribund)
Amy Greenwood
La Di Da
John M. Lynch
Charles Murtaugh (moribund)
Paul Z. Myers
Respectful of Otters
Josh Rosenau
Universal Acid
Amity Wilczek (moribund)
Theodore Wong (moribund)
Physics/Applied Physics
Trish Amuntrud
Sean Carroll
Jacques Distler
Stephen Hsu
Irascible Professor
Andrew Jaffe
Michael Nielsen
Chad Orzel
String Coffee Table
Math/Statistics
Dead Parrots
Andrew Gelman
Christopher Genovese
Moment, Linger on
Jason Rosenhouse
Vlorbik
Peter Woit
Complex Systems
Petter Holme
Luis Rocha
Cosma Shalizi
Bill Tozier
Chemistry
"Keneth Miles"
Engineering
Zack Amjal
Chris Hall
University Administration
Frank Admissions (moribund?)
Architecture/Urban development
City Comforts (urban planning)
Unfolio
Panchromatica
Earth Sciences
Our Take
Who Knows?
Bitch Ph.D.
Just Tenured
Playing School
Professor Goose
This Academic Life
Other sources of information
Arts and Letters Daily
Boston Review
Imprints
Political Theory Daily Review
Science and Technology Daily Review