I still remember a snippet from a National Geographic magazine many years ago. It predicted, for text messaging, that people with adequate thumbs would be at an evolutionary advantage: more likely to conquer a mate. The pitter-patter of tiny feet would be that of a super-thumb generation. And so on.
Today, a friend corrected somebody’s spelling in a comment on facebook: ‘your’ rather than ‘you’re’… It brought back memories. Of that text message I once received after a first date: ‘You’re amaizing.’ A few texts later I knew it hadn’t been a glitch. I wasn’t as impressed as I could have been… That’s probably because I’m a bird. And in bird world, a male has to sing well enough to attract a mate. Half an analogy, because it’s not like the female of the human species shouldn’t spell well.
More than once in my pre-writing life I’ve seen respectable people, with several degrees (though not language related), give impressive presentations. Which started with them apologising for their spelling. I was surprised. Isn’t it the first thing they teach at school? Isn’t it THE tool to convey everything? Isn’t it everywhere around us? Aren’t we setting an example? Shouldn’t we be stricter? Is it only me? Is evolution about freeing ourselves from spelling rules?
Yes, I am a writer and I give the written word extra importance. My friend’s friend on facebook was foreign. There are several reasons why somebody might struggle with their spelling. I myself am still a little foreign and always will be. I’m not perfect, but one reason why my spelling is good today is that good friends made a point of correcting me. Each time. No mercy. I no longer write ‘flee’ when I mean ‘fleas’.
Language too is adapting, changing, evolving. It moulds in ways nobody would have believed acceptable years ago. OMG, the Oxford dictionary has recently added LOL to its pages? Long live text messaging! But… shouldn’t we have some price to spell it right? Have it edited if necessary. Last week I read a short story I loved, but my enjoyment was just a tiny bit spoiled by two glaring spelling mistakes. In a quite short and very… published story.
They’ll always try to sneak in, but let’s be en garde. Let’s look at ourselves in the mirror before we go out. Tell others when we notice something. You wouldn’t let your friends walk around with their flies undone or their skirt tucked in, would you?
Spell checker doesn’t always pick up the mistakes either. As you’ve shown with flee and flea. The same word can be correctly spelled but not the correct context so it’s worth reading with your own eyes rather than just relying on spell checker.
Those words on presentations that are obviously incorrect should have no excuse when there is spell checker in existence. It’s about taking pride in your work.
Ha, I didn’t even think about spell checker. I have a problem with it, since the first time it tried to change my name from ‘Astrid’ into ‘Crushie’ – you understand… So never use it intentionally, though do look at words underlined by MS Word. But, for argument’s sake, another thought came to mind just now: over-reliance on spell checkers could make people less eager to actually make sure they know how to spell?