Are you a bad speller?

Sep 14 2007

There’s a pretty large divide that runs through the writing community, even extending into the general population. There are those who say that being able to spell correctly is imperative to being a well-educated person. But then there are those who say that by itself good spelling isn’t all that important – the important thing is the ability to use your resources (ie. dictionary) to correct your bad spelling.

I tend to fall into the latter group. I don’t think being a great speller is a huge asset for a writer. It might save a little time, but that’s about it. In the end, as long as a writer can recognize and correct spelling mistakes, then that’s all that really matters. In fact, in college I had many Teaching Assistants, all who were PhD students in English, who couldn’t spell if their life depended on it! But what sets them apart from many others is their willingness to take the time to look words up for their proper spelling.

What about Spell Check?
Nowadays, with just about everyone using fancy word processing programs for most of their writing, there has become a dependency on spell check programs to do the job done previously by old, torn desktop dictionaries. Overall, I think these programs are helpful, but only to a certain point.

For example, if you unknowingly type "soul" when you really meant to type "sole", since both words are spelled correctly, spell check probably won’t alert you that there’s a problem. On the flip side, I’ve had spell check mark a word wrong that I knew was right. I had one college professor point out that we should always rely on our own brains, not some software written by Bill Gates.

Importance of proofreading
This next point seems painfully obvious, yet many fail in this area simply because of laziness. Always have a second pair of eyes proofread your work! No matter how many times you read your own writing, you will miss mistakes (usually mistakes that are pretty obvious).

Another good tip: preferably, the person who proofreads your work shouldn’t be family or a good friend (ie. someone who might want to spare your feelings). Rather, pick someone you trust, but who you also know will be honest with you – not just about spelling mistakes, but about everything (ie. style, plot holes, dull characters, etc).

The dictionary is your friend
Every writer should have a good dictionary at their side. If not, at least be willing to use one of the many dictionary websites out there to check words you’re unsure of. In fact, given all the resources available nowadays, there’s really no excuse for poor spelling.

Now that I said that, all of you will be picking through my posts with a fine-toothed comb looking for those spelling errors. I’ll admit it, they are probably there, and I take full responsibility for it.

2 Responses

I seem to be a better at spotting errors when I’m reading someone else’s writing, instead of mine. Luckily (or unfortunately) I have a bunch of friends who seem to love to point out every time I make a mistake, so most things get caught fairly quickly.

Sportaphile 9/22/2007 12:33 am
I have a new resource book added to my collection of reference on my desk. I have a standard dictionary (actually three of them) a thesaurus and “Gabby’s Wordspeller & Phonetic Dictionary”. I can look up the word by the way it sounds, very easy to use. Don’t need to learn anything, jump through any hoops or know any of the English RULES. It’s simple and fast and brand new on the market. Anyone tried it?

diane frank 12/18/2008 4:58 pm