Are we in trouble or what?

[PTsideshow]

[Stilldrillin]

So, that's why so many people carnt spel.........   

David D

[lordedmond]

well thats not why I have a lot of trouble with spelling ( I do run a good spell checker ) as I am dyslectic , but when I was at school they did not know of that problem , so I got the cane once a week for bad spelling , now I cannot write on paper with a pen , a pc is a great boon as I can go back and correct as many times as I like

just to site an example this post has taken 15 mins to complete


Stuart

[John Stevenson]

Whilst I like to read a well laid out and correctly spelled post or document I feel that some people take the slightest mistake to heart.

As the post by PT pointed out you can make sense of what is written even if misspelt, the problem I find is bad grammar meaning you can't understand the sentence and it can have two, three or even no meanings.

I run a free advert site and we have one person who must be severely dyslectic, by the way who invented that word, even people who aren't dysletctic can't spell it ?  and his posts are a nightmare to read.

As all posts have to be approved I just go thru it and make it readable, I could just delete it but the site is for home shop engineers, not English teachers.

John S.

[AdeV]

Bad spelling, lack of punctuation and  incorrect use of capital letters - all of these things make me unreasonably cross, I've no idea why - especially when I'm forever getting "its" and "it's" wrong.

Grammar doesn't bother me, I barely understand the rules to be honest and I certainly couldn't subjugate a conjunctivitis adverse noun, or whatever it is the Grammar Police want us to do this week. And you can boldly split infinitives around me all day long, I won't have a clue you're doing it.

[AdeV]

just to site an example this post has taken 15 mins to complete

You mean "cite" 

Have you considered a speech-to-text thing? They're supposed to be much better these days, and if your average typing speed is as slow as you say, then you'll save loads of time. Of course, it still won't get "cite" and "site" right (or their, there or they're), but at least you won't have spent as long doing it!

[andyf]

About ten years back, I occasionally used a speech processor when I was working. "Dragon Simply Speaking", I think. When a typed copy of a 19th century lease was needed, I read it over into Word rather than asking my secretary to copy type it. Unfolded, it was about 3 square feet and handwritten in copperplate, so would have been both unmanageable on her desk and hard to read.   

It was amazing how well the program coped with the old legalese. It seemed to correct itself occasionally on homonyms like cede and seed, according to the context. Of course, some editing was needed, but it saved loads of time.

But I don't think anyone with dyslexia should be at all embarrassed. We all have our blind spots. Mine is dancing, where I'm an embarrassment to myself and a danger to others. OK, as John S said, it is nice to read a perfect post on here, but I can't think of any occasion when someone's unconventional spelling has made the meaning unclear.

Andy
 

[lordedmond]

Ade
you have me thinking the yet to be released Mountain Lion OS as dictation built it, although it sends it to Apple to compose


Stuart

[Raggle]

I live in a house of correction.

I'd better put that in context. My wife is a moderator for

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/991915

and is largely concerned with proofreading submissions. I am often called upon to be final arbiter (or a shorter route than looking up a word in a dictionary) for the spelling of some words.

Spelling and English usage is probably one of my best skills and SWMBO is a very close copy of me.
We've been together for 10 years this month and I'm sure our passion for words is one reason why. 2 other people may have found us too pedantic to live with. We spend much of our time shouting at Radio 4 during the day. Considering the station is the guardian of the English language there are so many voices getting the grammar wrong  -  and we can't even see their spelling.

This can be a curse, rather like musicians who have perfect pitch being annoyed by a piece played in the wrong key.

Any website with ambitions to be taken seriously does have a need to be beyond question in using correct language and spelling. I hope if anyone touring the Geograph site finds any errors they will report them.

Spell checkers have a place but can't be relied upon to distinguish between cite, site and sight. To name just one example, a British Gas leaflet on central heating some years ago warned of inappropriate sighting of room thermostats which could lead to overhearing in other rooms.

Ok, rant over. I wish I had one tenth of Bob KRV's machining ability. I'll trade him some of my spelling for that any day.

Ray

[andyf]

Hi Ray,

I'll take up the challenge, with this extract from Geograph's Terms of Use:
"....Geograph Project Ltd hereby grants You a non-exclusive, non- transferable, revocable license to view and use the Site..."
In British English, as opposed to American, "license" is a verb, not a noun.

When in pedantic mode, I share your misgivings about Radio 4. "There are three alternatives, and none of them are good"  "The critera is..." and constant confusion over collective nouns. And when did critique become a verb and start to supplant "criticise" (or criticize, if you follow the OED)?

But talk, on the radio or otherwise, is looser than the written word. I shouldn't  like to see  transcripts of any of my conversations.

Andy 

[Stilldrillin]

But talk, on the radio or otherwise, is looser than the written word. I shouldn't  like to see  transcripts of any of my conversations.

Andy

Well, ar!

Me neither, ma duck.......

             

David D

[Raggle]

Thank you for the pointer Andyf  -  though I did not issue a challenge. The integrity of the Geograph site is prime importance. With 3 million photos on the site already contributors are invited to submit some descriptive text and these screeds are always held to scrutiny. The idea was originated by a dyslexic man so nobody has checked the mission statement for purity 

Submissions do not all make it to the site. Many are rejected for wrong geographical location, inappropriate subject or duplication, in other words, moderated.

None are rejected for poor spelling alone. That is where SWMBO (and others) come in. The writers' prose is not altered save for moderators suggesting a substituted sentence to preserve the sense.

Her work is entirely voluntary and takes up much of every day. She likes to think of herself being part of Cameron's "Big Society"

There is a contact button for each photo  -  which has resulted in an alarming stream of queries, comments and sometimes abuse which should have been addressed to the owners of the shop, country park, government office or traffic roundabout depicted in the picture. We are often amused by replies to such inept internet users sent by some mods.

On the subject of Radio 4 what I really object to is the seeming lack of the meaning of words and tenses, the latter drives me mad when historians use the present tense when talking about events in centuries (or weeks) past.

For the last year or two the word "incredibly" (meaning in a manner which cannot be believed) liberally sprinkled through every piece I hear these days. David Cameron was incredibly sorry for not getting Brits out of Libya sooner. I didn't believe him. One film reviewer recently used the word 7 times in a piece on Front Row. Maybe she was right, but ...  Repetition!

This sloppy language makes me quickly lose interest in the subject, which is a great shame.

But we drifted very early on this thread. Look at the first post again. You CAN read it after being trained by the first 2 lines. Quite incredible, don't you think?

Ray

"I literally died when ..."  No you didn't, you're here telling the tale.

[andyf]

Yes, Ray, the first post is interesting; it's been around the Web for a while. Maybe, once the thrust of the passage becomes clear from the first few words, we begin to anticipate what the next few will be about and see what we expect to see rather than the misspellings.

Andy

PS I can't resist: your third paragraph begins "None are rejected for poor spelling alone."
                           None is rejected, surely? 

[mzt]

Had to stop for a second or so on "mniddeos" on the fourth row from the bottom.
Bet they expected me to.

Marcello

[Raggle]

Touche!

<substitute sentence  -  Few are rejected>

Ray

[Raggle]

It seems I may have appeared crass and unfeeling in my remark at the end of a previous post

Ok, rant over. I wish I had one tenth of Bob KRV's machining ability. I'll trade him some of my spelling for that any day.

I hope he didn't think I was singling him out for criticism. Nothing could be further from the truth and I hope I was praising HIS ability rather than having a go at his spelling. I always look forward to his posts as I might learn something, which is always the case.

Ray