Prevalancy Of Spelling Errors

Question

I constantly come across blatant errors in spelling. I've observed these mistakes at work, on the internet, and in the public arena. Many of these errors include misuse of homonyms, homographs, and apostrophes as well as the misspelling of simple everyday words.

this notice possessed at minimum a high school education. The mistake in the word "baker's" is one you'd expect to see in elemenrtary school! An important health notice issued by our overseeing agency read "Tatoo's can lead to serious infections" Again, an apostrophe is not needed in the word "tatoos". I am also seeing the misapplication of the apostrophe more and more on public signs and in newspapers. Shouldn't the correct use of the apostrophe be taught at least by the end of elementary school?

There seem to be many people confusing "your and you're" I come across this constantly, especially reading postings on the internet. "You're" is the contraction for "you are". "Your" is an adjective. Yet I continually read messages containing misuse of this homonym. Examples: " Your wrong about President Bush" or "Does your wife know what your doing?" Are people being plain lazy or are they really ignorant about the difference between "your" and "you're"?

Then there's "to, two, and too". The most common error appears to be using the preposition "to" where the adjective "too" should be as "The child ate to much candy" or "The line is to long". Once again, the proper useage of these three homonyms is usually taught to children before they graduate from the eighth grade. So why are so many adults in our society confusing "to and too"?

The examples I cited above involve basic spelling and grammar rules; most people with at least an average intelligence should be able to correctly apply them. The question is why don't they? .

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I constantly come across blatant errors in spelling. I've observed these mistakes at work, on the internet, and in the ... people with at least an average intelligence should be able to correctly apply them. The question is why don't they?[/nq]
Two reasons. The first is inadequate standards of schooling, but I'm sure you know that. The second is the unnecessary complexity of the spelling and grammar of the English language. As ESL students in this forum will attest, English is a nightmare mishmash of odd spellings, grammar rules that only work sometimes and usages that follow no rules at all.

The reasons for this state of affairs are various. English is a cheerful magpie of a language that swipes words it takes a fancy to from every language in the world, and brings their odd spellings in with them. Also there are at least ten more sounds in our tongue than we have letters for, so that adds to the confusion as overworked characters do double duty.

There was a time when all these foibles were regarded as an asset by the upper classes. They helped distinguish a properly educated man from the ruck and run. As the Professor Henry Higgins in My fair Lady pointed out, "An Englishman can't open his mouth without causing some other Englishman to despise him!". That applied to written English as well as spoken unfortunately.

In our modern 'global village' it's certainly no longer an asset, but George Bernard Shaw's own efforts at spelling reform failed miserably, and our chances of reforming English grammar are just about nil. So the language lives and grows, often in directions we deplore, and there's no stopping it.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The examples I cited above involve basic spelling and grammar rules; most people with at least an average intelligence should be able to correctly apply them. The question is why don't they?[/nq]
.don't forget, 49% of the people in the world are below average intelligence

-- Nature, heron stone to be commanded, (Email Removed) must be obeyed. http://home.attbi.com/~heronstone/

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I constantly come across blatant errors in spelling. I've observed these mistakes at work, on the internet, and in the public arena.[/nq]
They are unfortunately quite prevalent.
[nq:1]an apostrophe is not needed in the word "tatoos".[/nq]
But an additional "t" is.
[nq:1]proper useage of these three homonyms is usually taught to children[/nq]
As is the spelling of "usage".
[nq:1]The examples I cited above involve basic spelling and grammar rules; most people with at least an average intelligence should be able to correctly apply them. The question is why don't they?[/nq]
I suspect it is primarily due to poor education.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]across but ,for brevity's sake, I will limit them to just a few. One[/nq]^
[nq:1]mistake in the word "baker's" is one you'd expect to see in elemenrtary school![/nq]^

Why is it that everybody who writes an message about errors of punctuation or spelling always seems to have at least one typo?

;-)

I won't comment on the content of the message since John Ings has dealt with the points I would have made, particularly in the latter part of his post.

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

Usenet · Answer

^
[nq:1]Why is it that everybody who writes an message about errors of punctuation or spelling always seems to have at ... points in his response. However, the errors I pointed out (IMHO) did not involve any complicated spelling or grammatical rules.[/nq]
Grammar and spelling have always come easy to me. Perhaps I may not be as sensitive to other people's struggles with the English language as I should be. Having said this, I would add that the mistakes I offered as examples were made by people who were born in the United States to English speaking parents and had at least a high school education.
[nq:1]Regards, Einde O'Callaghan[/nq]

Usenet · Answer

^
[nq:2]Why is it that everybody who writes an message about errors of punctuation or spelling always seems to have at least one typo? ;-)[/nq]
[nq:1]As the poster of the original message in this thread, I was painstakingly trying to avoid any errors as this ... also also made a couple of spelling errors! BTW, how does one do a spell check when posting to Google?[/nq]
[nq:2]I won't comment on the content of the message since ... have made, particularly in the latter part of his post.[/nq]
[nq:1]Mr. Ings made some valid points in his response. However, the errors I pointed out (IMHO) did not involve any ... people who were born in the United States to English speaking parents and had at least a high school education.[/nq]
[nq:2]Regards, Einde O'Callaghan[/nq]
I agree, Susan. I certainly make mistakes myself, but at least I usually make an effort to get it right. I see mistakes all the time that make me cringe. If I see a couple of mistakes, I figure that's just human error. When I see many, including the type you spoke of, in one paragraph, it makes me think the person doesn't care, is ignorant, or both. The only exception is if it seems that the person is not a native speaker. It's usually evident by the types of mistatkes.

PS: For Google, you could compose it in a word processor and then just cut and paste it to Google. It may seem like a lot of trouble to go through, but it really isn't.

Regards, Phil

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I constantly come across blatant errors in spelling. I've observed these mistakes at work, on the internet, and in the public arena.[/nq]
[nq:1]They are unfortunately quite prevalent.[/nq]
[nq:2]an apostrophe is not needed in the word "tatoos".[/nq]
[nq:1]But an additional "t" is.[/nq]
[nq:2]proper useage of these three homonyms is usually taught to children[/nq]
[nq:1]As is the spelling of "usage".[/nq]
[nq:2]The examples I cited above involve basic spelling and grammar ... to correctly apply them. The question is why don't they?[/nq]
[nq:1]I suspect it is primarily due to poor education.[/nq]
I guess we all make mistakes from time to time. I think, we often make spelling mistakes while typing not because we don't know how to spell a word, but because we mistype it. Sometimes we just can't type a word correctly the first time because of our specific typing motor -- for example, I always type "transaltion" when I mean to type "translation". Other times we make a mistake by accidentally slip our fingers - for example, I sometimes accidentally hit both "P" and "O" key and get "typoe" instead of the intended "type" word - or other kinds of accidental movements. This kind of accidentally made mistakes tends to increase due to tiredness after hours working, or under time constraint when we need to type faster (e.g. jotting down a quick note, when we think faster than we type etc.), or when we type in unsuitable pose (typing with a phone or two on our shoulders, lean-and-typing etc.) I found this small software extremely useful (As-U-Type at http://www.asutype.com) since it can detect and correct almost all such spelling and typing mistakes on the fly, anywhere, anytime; thus save me from some really annoying typos. --terry

Prevalancy Of Spelling Errors

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