Has anybody an opinion on the standard of English spelling?

Question

My question: Spelling English? received several interesting answers but has been removed as a violation with the remark that it was neither a question nor an answer.

My original question was based on the fact that many people ask questions which could be answered by a quick search on the Internet. Except that, if you can't spell, then the search engine hasn't got a clue what they're looking for.

Answer 1

I remember your question and wondered what happened to it. I notice time and time again that the answers to questions would be readily forthcoming if the people asking were able to spell and had a wider vocabulary and could look up the answers on the Internet. The current disregard for spelling in the educational system is disastrous, as unless people are accurate in their use of language they do not have access to the wealth of information available to us in this way. It makes me sad to see people who are victims of our poor educational system and who have the courage nevertheless to ask questions being insulted by people who have had the benefit of a better education. I don't see how, if spelling has not been instilled into you at an early age, you can do very much about improving it later on. Mocking them doesn't help. One day soon somebody in high places is going to wake up and decided that spelling must be reinstituted as an important facet of British education, but there will be by then a generation (or two) for whom it comes too late.

Answer 2

When I did English at school we spent time on spelling practise, grammar and written English.
We wrote essays and they were marked on all aspects of English. Each fault resulted in a reduction of your score. In one year we had to write 10 essays on a variety of topics from a given list. It meant that we also had to research the topic and be correct on the detail as well as the English. Bear in mind that the course I was doing was for a Technical Certificate.
As I progressed in my working life, I needed the English to write documents, lectures and reports. That early training was so helpful. Schools now concentrate on the sense and not the English which as these pages in Answers testify, there is some terrible English and spelling.
I still use spell checks as I do get confused on some words.

Answer 3

As far as I'm concerned these days people do not take sufficient care with their spelling. Maybe they do use spell checks,but the problem with those is that all they do is to tell you if a word does or does not exist. They do not tell you if you are using the word correctly. For example,if you type "stationary", you will not be told that there is also the word "stationery"which is pronounced in the same way. Thus you could go sailing merrily along in blissful ignorance.of using the wrong homonym.

Answer 4

Yes, it's awful. A lot of people don't regard spelling as important including, it seems, many English teachers. Weekly spelling tests with punishments for children who get less than half marks would improve the standard.

Answer 5

I think it's about the same as it's ever been. The difference is only that more people are reading any given person's off-the-cuff and unedited remarks.

I find that search engines are perfectly capable of figuring out wrong spellings, as well.

Answer 6

If you're talking about the current trend towards illiteracy, then yes, I believe it is an indication of the lazy attitudes people take towards learning what should be the most basic skill.

It does seem to stem from the advent of text messaging, where everyone tries to cut down every word to the least possible characters to fit as much into one message.

Answer 7

I think it is in general decline, with text messaging and tolerance by examination boards exacerbating the problem. It distracts me when I read an article with spelling mistakes! I also find that even in the national press there are errors, and usage of words e.g born, borne in the wrong context. Standards are most definitely slipping...

Answer 8

it's confusing sometimes like one is said "wun"but spelled differently and how "quiet" "quit" and "quite" are spelled almost the same

no wonder our language is one of the most hardest to learn

Answer 9

What do you mean standard of English spelling? English is english. It derived from Europe. So what?