spelling

[edsearch2000]

I get turned off to a site that has misspelled words, usually common words, i.e.: receive, that , there, their, etc. I realize that spell check is not perfect for misused words, but if you're going to take the time to write the code and script correctly to make the whole thing work-check to make sure the verbage is correct and professional.
Bill

[Sualdam]

I agree 100%.

The problem is, you're fighting the 'if-people-do-it-then-it's-OK-because-it's-a-free-world' brigade. Try and correct people's spelling and you'll be up on a charge of some kind :)

Seriously, though, most people these days don't know how to spell - but they don't know that they don't know. So how do you deal with that?

[matauri]

I am a terrible culprit for this. Not because I cant spell, but because of typos. I try to get as many people as possible to read my text to point out common mistakes that a spell checker doesn't pick up. If I have the time I use a method I used to use as a journo, I read the text backwards.

Cindy

[Sualdam]

Personally, I think typos are a different thing entirely. That's my excuse :)

At least with typos you can pick them up when you proofread. If you can't spell, what happens then?

[mikmik]

Sauldam points out:
At least with typos you can pick them up when you proofread. If you can't spell, what happens then?

If there (their, they're) are (is) to (too, two) many problems (problem) with your (you're) spelling I wonder how many people actually know themselves when they view your pages.

And I know that poor spelling drives me batty and I will usually leave pretty quick, unless it is obvious that english isn't their native language, but I wonder what the impact on viewing actually is? 5% loss, 25% or what?

[edsearch2000]

You all are correct in you thoughts.
My wife and I are both elementary teachers.
Our grown son is a poor speller. We see it and understand it. My point is that when developing a site that there should be some kind of wherewithall to have someone proof it before giving or charging for a site that is going to viewed by professionals that may be looking for someone to employ, and continuing the improper use of imperfections in grammar and spelling on an otherwise great looking and performing site.

I know that is a mouthfull. I apologize if I have offended anyone.

edsearch2000

[Narasinha]

I worked for about a dozen years in a Fortune 100 company (not in an IT capacity) and was frequently appalled at the spelling in company memos, etc. Personally, I am rather good with spelling. I see common spelling (or incorrect word choice) errors all over the web. As someone mentioned above, it is quite forgivable with persons whose first language is not English. When viewing the site of a large corporation, however, I find it very unprofessional when I see these mistakes. Corporate executives usually have a secretary proofread their material. Web content producers should take the same measures if they know that they have a spelling or grammar problem.

[Sualdam]

I agree. I think it stems from what I alluded to above: political correctness.

I work for a FTSE listed company in the UK and I observe the same problems you did with internal memos in all forms (electronic and printed). My company deliberately did away with psychometric testing during recruitment because 'it put unfair pressures on candidates'.

On the web it is worse... you mustn't challenge anyone.

[carbonize]

Not everybody speaks English as a first language so we can hardly expect them to be perfect at it, although they usually spell better than English speaking people.

Also I could easily accuse all American sites of being badly spelt as not all English is the same. Sometimes spelling mistakes and typos happen.

[Sualdam]

You are absolutely right - but we are talking about bad spelling per se.

We are NOT talking about people who can't speak English, people who have a learning disability, typos, etc.

When you sift out all the possible reasons why bad spelling is a good thing, you are left with the fact that it is... well, pretty much a bad thing.

Take the minor issues to their limits, and we'd all be grunting at each other and painting pictures of animals on cave walls.

;)

[edsearch2000]

I often see abused words spelled correctly and wonder about those who incorrectly write them and probably see the words spelled differently than they spell them. Do they ignore the spelling or just can't see that the location of the
" i " and "e" are switched? Rather than make a mistake I prefer to check to make sure.

I know that I do make mistakes due to my hastiness especially with messages.
Perhaps I just too picky and should ignore them and just read for content.

I hasten to add that when I see mistakes it cautions me to be skeptical of what I am seeing and that it is a possible scam.

Bill

[Sualdam]

You made me look back at my posts :)

I often mistype 'receive' as 'recieve'. My problem is that I'm not a good typist (a couple of fingers, and all that). If I take the trouble to look over what I wrote I usually spot it.

The errors I usually see on sites involve incorrect grammar (especially the apostrophe).

I was thinking about carbonize's post, and the more I think about it the more I can't see any excuse for bad spelling and grammar in a site written by people for whom English is not their primary language. After all, I do not speak French or German well enough to design a site using it (I can order food, beer, and generally get around using those languages - the important stuff - but that's about it :)), so if I had to do so I'd get someone to do the translation for me. In a similar vein, I'd be more than happy to correct English in a site written by a non-English speaker.

But first impressions are important, and a site containing poor English (whatever the reason) will be viewed by people who are not privy to the reasons behind it.

[wenwilder]

English is my first language, and yet, I wouldn't say I'm fluent in it. I make mistakes and don't always catch them. I've had errors pointed out on my site and I am eternally grateful to those who do point them out. I think it is completely unprofessional to have errors whether it be spelling, grammatical or typo's, but..that's within my site, and I am, unfortunately a harsh perfectionist when it comes to me.

The majority of the world is forgiving of these errors, because they know that they make them too. It is unprofessional and sites do lose business because of it. The sites with the worst typo's, spelling and grammatical errors come from those who may be 15 years of age or who are just building their site and you've just chanced a cross it. You also have those sites where the 'errors' are meant to be there, they wouldn't be as entertaining if they weren't.

What I'm trying to say is consider the business the site represents and then decide how important the spelling, grammer, and typo's are to that business. And then maybe send a polite email to the site owner pointing the error out, they may thank you and if they don't...their business doesn't mean as much to them as it should.

Just my thoughts.

[anuj_pandit1]

Hello,

Try to give the proper spelling in the content, it also say about the website background,ith shows that how much you are careful abount your content the you shoudl careful about services.

I hope you are getting what i am saying......

Hope it will help you......

Regards
ALok Kumar Upadhyay

[janeth]

I can not spell English is not my first language. I wish I could figure out what all is not spelled right on my site.

So some of you people that it really bothers can go to my site and start pointing things out I will change it but you will need to do it once a week because I have a problem leaving my site alone. I change the home page text at lest once a week.

[carbonize]

Looks fine to me Janeth. You, like most people for whom English isn't their first language, are more careful with you spelling and grammar. Most bad spelling and grammar is commited by people for whom English is their first language and they are lazy and complacent with it's usage.

[Sammi290]

I think part of the problem with spelling mistakes is they way kids are taught in school. (Here anyways)

I have 2 boys (13 - 11) and since grade 1 when I check on their homework (which they really hate..especially now) the common spelling mistakes are numerous! When I asked the teacher in grade 1 why they allow him to write 'cat' with a 'k' she told me it was to allow them the freedom of writing without the worry of 'how to spell' well, for Grade 1 I let it pass-it made a little sense. :)

But it is still happening (ok not with words such as cat...) but in all honestly with really simple words-please...they 'forget the 'e'. When I start correcting their compositions (they rarely bring any home anymore :) ) I tell them how many spelling errors I found...to take out the dictionary and look words up! If they are hard words I will help but little spelling mistakes I make them re-read to find them...

Sorry for ranting on and on...I don't mean to put down the school system or insult any teachers in any way.

BTW Matauri...I do the same thing when I have time...read backwards :)

Sammi

[Sualdam]

Looks fine to me Janeth. You, like most people for whom English isn't their first language, are more careful with you spelling and grammar. Most bad spelling and grammar is commited by people for whom English is their first language and they are lazy and complacent with it's usage.
Shouldn't that be 'its'?

[Sualdam]

Sorry for ranting on and on...I don't mean to put down the school system or insult any teachers in any way.
Don't be.

If more people criticised the teachers and the system maybe things would improve.

It is madness to try and teach phonetic spelling to kids when they are learning. In a perfect world it might make sense, but since they have other things to challenge their attention spans many will always have trouble switching to the correct method later - and some much more than most - so it is just adding another obstacle to their development.

And that touches on another problem - the concept that failure is undesirable, so move the goalposts further apart, and avoid having winners.

Let's face it, if you aren't good at something as an adult you can't hide from it for long. But maybe being brought up unable to see one's limitations means that accepting them later in life is that much more difficult and damaging.

Example: I've found that a lot of staff I've interviewed, who have had serious writing and spelling problems, have turned out to be highly artistic (many - not all). They couldn't see this themselves, though.

I wonder if instead of being easy-tracked through school as members of a herd, they might have developed better careers if their real abilities had have been developed?

[carbonize]

I'd correct my punctuation but it would make Sualdam's post look weird.

[Sualdam]

If it's any comfort, it took me twice as long as usual to write that next post :)

I had to make darned sure there were no typos ;)

[Sammi290]

I wonder if instead of being easy-tracked through school as members of a herd, they might have developed better careers if their real abilities had have been developed

I agree...I think they (the school system) had good intentions, but in the end its kids today that end up paying as well as it leaves parents frustrated...(I am speaking for myself..lol)

Ahhh the joys....lol

Sammi

[janeth]

I will tell you what, I start every day off reading neal boortz http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html It is how I keep up with what's going on in the US

I'm sure most people will not know who he is but he has something to say about the schools in the USA almost every day.

Thanks carbonize for looking at my site.

[janeth]

Not sure if I understand but it loks like the US is trying to make new rules for English

http://www.usenglish.org/inc/news/preleases/viewRelease.asp?ID=105

[vwebworld]

Consider this....

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are in; the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

....Hmmm

~Roland

[Sualdam]

That was the topic of a long thread in the Break Room a few weeks ago :)

Just out of interest, though, if someone switched one or two of the letters for alien ones - would you know?

I bet you wouldn't - so what is that telling you?

[mikmik]

edsearch2000
I often see abused words spelled correctly and wonder about those who incorrectly write them and probably see the words spelled differently than they spell them. Do they ignore the spelling or just can't see that the location of the
" i " and "e" are switched? Rather than make a mistake I prefer to check to make sure.Yes, I thought that as well, but I think it is because we (at least you. Me? Not so sure anymore!) know what the correct spelling is, and are able to say "SEE? There is the right way to spell the word. Can't the ones who don't know how to spell it use this example?" Actually, if they don't know which is the right way, they will probably see an equal number of examples BOTH ways! And if they incorrectly assume that THEY are the ones spelling properly, then they are probably wonderring the same about us!

One thing is for sure, in the last 2 months, a far greater proportion of my reading takes place in this forum. I've also noticed that my spelling is becoming atrocious!

[carol]

I would make a distinction between content on a website and a post on this forum. I view communication on forums as a more informal methodology, although not as informal as internet messaging. I am much more forgiving of typos, grammar errors, and flat-out misspellings, when reading postings. It's like we are talking among ourselves vs. being a featured speaker at a conference! But when I see grammar errors and misspellings on websites (and in that arena, it doesn't matter if it's a typo or ignorance), then I find it unprofessional. And yes, not everyone on the web speaks English. All the more reason for sites published in English to be correct. At least give a fair chance to those who are trying to translate the site! ;-)
carol

[minstrel]

If there (their, they're) are (is) to (too, two) many problems (problem) with your (you're, yore) spelling I (eye, i)wonder (wander) how many people (poeple, peeple) actually know (no) themselves when they view your (you're, yore) pages.
"My brain hurts." (again...)


And I know that poor spelling drives me batty and I will usually leave pretty quick (aka "quickly"), unless it is obvious that english (aka "English") isn't their (his/her) native language, but I wonder what the impact on viewing actually is? 5% loss, 25% or what?
It's that British Columbia air - when I lived there, I was Champion of the Spelling Bee - now, I'm... old... and easily led astray in the woods...

But, you know (no), it DOES make a difference, even though I try to tell myself it's a petty thing and I'm just being obsessive-compulsive... it LOOKS either careless/sloppy or uneducated and it doesn't inspire confidence in the author of a website...