How do we teach people how to spell?

[Shingen]

Some of us are dyslexic and "hookt on foniks."

I suggest you tell the culprit to write the correct spelling 50 times on the chalkboard!!!
Get it, got it, good!

 

[Weird Harold]

What does get me is when I can't make heads or tails of what the message is! ... To toss in typos along with unstructured sentences and misguided thoughts is a bigger peeve to me than misspellings.

Being one of many who are affllicted with "stupid fingers" that don't always type what they're told makes me somewhat tolerant of typos in BB posts. I don't start to stress over bad spelling until it interferes with understanding.

The only way to get the chronic bad spellers to take notice is to keep asking, "Huh? What is that supposed to mean?" whenever they stray into the realm of total gibberish.

Pointing out the absurdities they create by using the wrong words can help also.

 

[Tamlee]

Also peeved

I don't know which irks me more--bad spelling and grammar in a post, or the same thing in a story. I suppose that's not true. When I'm reading a post, I have relatively short bodies of text to work with and there's not the chance to really get into the tone of the thing. With a story, that's not the case. I absolutely detest clicking on a link to a story that sounds interesting, only to find out that it's misspelled, mispunctuated, fractured and that the names and tense change constantly. Sorry for ranting, but I enjoy a lot of the stories here on Literotica and find the not-so-rare visual duds to be a real disappointment. A lot of the time the idea behind it is good, which makes things all the more frustrating. I always vote low for an author that doesn't even bother to have someone else read their story (if I can tell ). Ok, end of rant.

 

[fgarvb1]

I never was good at spelling, (slept through english I,II & III) also i'm sure all the drugs i did when i was younger did not help much.

Then when i was twenty i had a blood sugar problem for a couple of years that really fucked it up!

I try.

 

[SexySparkles]

I agree...

"u"
"boi"
"grrl"
"o"
"sk8"
"4"
"2"
"b"


And things of that nature are not words. It takes about half of a second to type a word. How lazy can you be?

 

[sheath]

I agree...

"u"
"boi"
"grrl"
"o"
"sk8"
"4"
"2"
"b"


And things of that nature are not words. It takes about half of a second to type a word. How lazy can you be?

My sentiments exactly!

S.

 

[Semler]

If anyone is interested, I have a link to a free program that will put a button on your Internet Explorer browser and it will allow you to do a spell check of your work.




Screenshot

ieSpell homepage

 

[dickE]

I am dislexic, and it is hard to look a word up in the dictionary if you have no idea how to spell it or don't realize you spelled it incorrectly. I keep a phonetic speller that my dad gave me over 30 years ago next to the computer and that helps with the no idea spellings, A spelling checker option on literotic would help I am sure.

What drives me insane is the story board and people using the wrong word. My understanding is that stories are submitted then read by someone else and still there are incorrect words! I find it very distracting. Sometimes I think about letting the author know but I don't want to hurt their feelings. I know how it feels when people focus on spelling and miss the content.

I use----and use the hell out of---a Franklin Spelling Ace w/ theasaurus. It's pretty inexpensive and it covers an amazing number of words.

The thing I am bugged about the most is the fact that I am constantly looking up the same words over and over again. Is there 1 "L" or 2?.......is "ly" or "ally"?...."ant" or "ent"? on the end of a word?? Little things that I can't remember and no "ass kicking" has ever nor will it ever make me learn those things.

Remembering things for me is much easier if I can use some sort of association or "tricks" to remember. Spelling and math and remembering dates point-blank for history were impossible to associate and come up with tricks....so I did poorly. I spell "encyclopedia" thanks to Jimminy Cricket's song.

My reading comprehension is very low.......if I have to learn it, I read and re-read and re-read. I can read just fine. I could read for the 6 o'clock news even, but after I read it I can't tell you what I read.

I confuse right and left or east and west constantly to this day. I must carefully and consciously think before giving directions or I'll reverse them. But, I have no problem at all with up and down or north and south. By the same token I am constantly using the wrong names....brothers or sisters won't necessarily need to be twins and I'll think one name and say the other.......same with married couples, even. I'll think her name and say his if I don't watch it.

When being introduced to several people at one time, names are hard to impossible to remember.

Untill I was 11 or 12, I couldn't speak....period! I stammered and studdered around all the time and when I was excited, I was worse. One day it dawned on my that thoughts were coming from my brain too fast for my mouth to handle them. I taught myself to slow my thought processes down to the speed of my speech by going to my room and practicing telling jokes out loud over and over. I had to do the same thing when learning Morse code.........when the brain is running at say 100 or possibly more words per minute and your hand is working at 5 wpm, letters, words and even entire sentences are skipped over and you fail to realize you skipped them.

Until I was in the 5th or 6th grade, I confused little "b" with little "d".

It's been fun. I just hope they screen for dyslexia nowadays. If I had a nickle every time a teacher told my folks that I "just don't work up to his potential", I'd be rich.

 

[Lust Engine]

Hell DickE,

You look as though you've over came a lot. Bravo to you for finding a solution to your "problem". You seem eloquent and well written now. Congrats to you for making the effort to communicate.

I think that's what the majority of people want others to do here on this thread & the board in general... communicate well and we'd all be much happier.

Even if we disagree, get that point across somehow someway. DickE- you've done well!

 

[Gil_T2]

wat ya talkin boute I spwlz rite

 

[HzDomme]

My favorites...

to, too & two

to = a destination
too = also
two = a number

I am going TO strangle the first TWO people who make this mistake. Would you like to do that, TOO?


their, there & they're

their = possessive meaning belonging to
there = a place
they're = a contraction they are

THEY'RE going to put THEIR pool over THERE.

who's & whose

who's = who is WHO'S going with us?
whose = possessive WHOSE cup is this?

If you cant spell, pleze get a dictionery . LOOK for the wordz until you find the rite onze.
Blaming skools for yore lack of education is a cop out.
Bad keyboards I can relate two (mine lost it's A for a wile) but
a mistake in spelin is only a mistake if you make it once. If u continu two do so itz ignorince or lazynes.

And please tell me if I mess up. I AM purfect and want to keep it that way.

 

[greybeard]

would be nice........

how about a spell check in lit?

I know other boards have one..............myself, I do as vixenshe said and copy into word.............and have bookmarked a dictionary site...........of course one needs to have a desire to spell correctly in the first place...........some seem to not care...........and we all make those mistakes on occasion..........

greybeard

 

[dickE]

If you cant spell, pleze get a dictionery . LOOK for the wordz until you find the rite onze.
Blaming skools for yore lack of education is a cop out.
Bad keyboards I can relate two (mine lost it's A for a wile) but
a mistake in spelin is only a mistake if you make it once. If u continu two do so itz ignorince or lazynes.

And please tell me if I mess up. I AM purfect and want to keep it that way.
[/B][/QUOTE]



Now, HzDomme you're trying for cute, I know, but you're proving well a point made to me by the old-timers--many of which were old Railroaders--to not be so worried about spelling...except for names and addresses where accurate "copy" is necessary. They all said that more than likely the other guy was misspelling the same words the same way I was so, in fact, we were in sync, if anything!

And, also, anytime someone "talks" with their fingers....be it a keyboard or a telegrapher's key....they will just naturally seek short cuts, abbreviations and any means of shortening up the time it takes to communicate without losing the essence of the thought.....ergo..........we're human!! Relax. - - - / -.- ?

 

[Tamlee]

The burden of communication is on the communicator, so it's the responsibility of the person who wants to get their idea across to make sure that it's intelligible to the average person. The amount that they will get out of it is in inverse proportion to the amount of work it takes to wade through the misspellings and other errors. If someone doesn't care if their message is understood, why are they posting? And if they do care but aren't making at least a good faith effort to be clear, what should we call that?

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

what really bothers me is when people not only spill funnny but also when they refuser to use and punctuiation and write these incredibly long run on sentences heh ehe hehe and then they get offended when your response is 'huh?'

 

[SlickTony]

Spelling is a natural talent; some people have it, some people don't. I can tell a mispelling from a typo. I'm willing to cut people some slack when it comes to posting, but if you're going to turn a story loose in public print--so to speak, I'm including places that don't pay, like this one--every effort should be made to ensure that it's error-free.

 

[fiery_jack]

I say just deal with it. Not everyone is perfect. If you can't stand the spelling or can't understand what the person is trying to say, go on to another thread.

Nice idea, but obviously it's not just the sex that's anal around here.

 

[peachykeen]

Nice idea, but obviously it's not just the sex that's anal around here.

Well, the thing is, this is primarily a story site, right? So it attracts people who enjoy reading and writing, and therefore it seems likely that there would be many more people here who care, actually really care, about things like proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation than you would find at a site that is geared towards, say, pop music, or sports.

I am aware that there are many very intelligent individuals who struggle with dyslexia and other learning disabilities (my mom and my sister among them). Also, there are people here at Lit for whom English is a second language and don't always know how to phrase things properly. However, it is usually faily easy to tell if someone is genuinely trying, or just doesn't give a shit.

 

[SlickTony]

There is nothing anal about expecting finished written works to have gone through the copyediting process. It's kind of like expecting to wake up from a surgical operation without sponges and surgical instruments sewn up into your body. Or having your house painted with all complete, finished, cured coats and no paint glopped onto your windows.

 

[lorddragonwolf]

if you are writting a story then you should use spell check. this little feature has helped me several times while writing letters or papers. but it is not always fool proof.

 

[Tamlee]

I agree with SlickTony on this one. My career is based around writing, and I expect to see an effort to be clear made in things people submit for the consumption of others. I'll be happy to admit that my rough drafts are full of holes, plot and otherwise, misspelling and god knows what other errors. By the time I'm offering it to other people, it looks as good as I can manage to make it.

Now, I also know that not everyone who submits a story to Literotica is preoccupied with form. I'd be kind of amazed if they were. Here's the thing, though--I won't vote favorably on a story that's very hard to understand, or that has errors which distract from the flow. When I read, I visualize the scene. When the names keep switching around, or the sentences are so convoluted that you can't tell where anyone is or what they're doing, that's really hard to do. Having to guess which word the person is going for when all you have to go on is context is also frustrating. Does anyone here think that expecting a clear picture from a scene is too much to ask?

 

[fiery_jack]

I am aware that there are many very intelligent individuals who struggle with dyslexia and other learning disabilities (my mom and my sister among them).

Do you think those people would appreciate being told to use a dictionary just to post on these boards?

However, it is usually faily easy to tell if someone is genuinely trying, or just doesn't give a shit.

Exactly. If they don't give a shit, why bother trying to "teach" them?

 

[peachykeen]

If they are going to post stories or long narrative posts, then yes, they should use a dictionary. As Tamlee said, the burden is on the communicator.


If it's simply someone who doesn't give a shit, that's not excusable to me. It's a sign of a sloppy, lazy mind.

 

[fiery_jack]

There is nothing anal about expecting finished written works to have gone through the copyediting process.

There is to expect it from the posts of people who probably just want to have fun and share their thoughts and opinions with others.

 

[SlickTony]

I did not say, Jack, that I expected it in posts.