Is good spelling a forgotten art?

There are some posts I simply do not read; they are grammatically poor, the spelling is dire and punctuation is non existent, in short, they are almost impossible to read.

However the one that had my blood boiling to day was the one that mentioned xmas.

Who the hell is x? Are we celebrating x's birth?

Abbreviate in text messages, at least try to write words in full everywhere else.








....and breathe.........
 
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I've been told that they are now starting to teach proper grammar and spelling in primary schools again, and that in future GCSE and A-level exam papers will be marked down for poor grammar and spelling (watch those grades plummet!) - so maybe there is hope for future generations!

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Hallelujah!!! Hundreds of years ago I trained as a teacher and on my second-year teaching practice was nick-named "The Phantom of the Red Pen" for my use of it on spelling mistakes!! It's quite amazing isn't it that year on year the results for GCSE and A Level skyrocket . . . . . (don't get me started, I took proper O and A Levels) but employers are having to run literacy courses for their young employees and university professors are publishing books with grammatical howlers . . . . words fail me! Mind you, I am currently reading a very expensively produced book about Nelson's favourite ship, HMS Agamemnon, and I found a fantastic typo, call it what you will . . . get this. . . . 'dissapointed' (on page 83) - it screamed off the page at me . . aarrghhh!
 
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Also, the fact that currently GCSE and A-level exams aren't marked down for bad spelling and grammar is ridiculous.

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I believe they are, but only a tiny percentage. I've heard that some students write entire exams in txt spk *shudder*

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In Germany you lose half a point or every spelling mistake, even if you just forget to dot an i.
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English isn't my first language either
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TBF though, English is harder to spell because words aren't necessarily spelt the way they sound, are they? And I've been told that in German they are (Just to check... are they?)

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Most of them are, but there are some exceptions (just can't seem to think of any right now
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) The thing that causes a lot of spelling problems in German is when to use s, ss, and "scharfes s" (looks a bit like lower case beta in the greek alphabet), and also sometimes there is a silent h in the middle of a word after a vowel and sometimes there isn't, even though the words are pronounced the same. The s in st is pronounced the same as sch, and if we're talking about grammar, don't get me started on articles and pronouns and when to use them.
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So you see, it's still a pain in the backside.
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On a different subject PF, how much do you charge for a painting? I would love to have one done of Robbie.
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x-mas is one that I absolutely detest. I sometimes make typing mistakes, and a few spelling mistakes are acceptable as I think most people do it (make typing mistakes)at some point.
I do get extremely upset - or maybe annoyed - at easy words regularly spelt wrongly.
Such as Bread instead of Bred
Brought instead of bought
malt instead of moult

I could go on, guess I'm (or should that be I am) an old f**t too
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Yet another old fart - I hate bad spelling and grammar, especially when people clearly know and put (sp?). Why not look in the dictionary?? However, I realise I spelled 'definitely' wrong on here the other day. How very careless!
 
Another old fart here.

At my Primary school we had 10 words to learn on Monday and a test on Friday and if you got more than 2 wrong you were in serious trouble.

I hate reading magazines where spelling and grammar are incorrect. There's one I can think of that is simply atrocious. They often spell peoples' name differently on the same page, and a lot of the wording doesn't make sense because there's no punctuation.

I don't profess to be brilliant at spelling and grammar but like to think I have the basic grasp.

On sites like this I don't mind text speak and spelling mistakes because people are often in a hurry or can type quicker that way, but in a book or magazine I think they should be correct
 
I'm obsessed with correct spelling and grammar. I went to a very old-fashioned school (I'm only 23) so had to do joyous things like sentence analysis! BTW madhossy it should be "people's" not "peoples'" See, told you I was obsessed!

I don't really care if people spell things wrongly on here, but I DO care if the I'm-so-much-cleverer-than-you managers where I work get things wrong in reports; I take great delight in correcting them and saying things like "You should be using the subjunctive there" ha ha.
 
The problem is that there are people who post who don't realise that they have incorrectly spelled words.

I used to pick up people on their spelling etc until somebody commented that as long as you can understand what someone was trying to say was it really so important that they didn't spell/say something correctly? I understood what they meant but it does still irritate me but not quite as much!
That kind of put me in my place a bit but I do still detest txt speak in posts or plain laziness when typing.

Oh and do pick me up if I've made any errors!
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But there are at least two whole generations that have not been taught even basic literacy in schools, so it's not really their fault.


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Which generations?
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I am 19, and was taught perfectly well in a fairly average state school. I don't think education is generally the problem, it is laziness on behalf of the individual in most cases.
 
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But there are at least two whole generations that have not been taught even basic literacy in schools, so it's not really their fault.


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Which generations?
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I am 19, and was taught perfectly well in a fairly average state school. I don't think education is generally the problem, it is laziness on behalf of the individual in most cases.

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My generation maybe (as in much older) I went to a selective grammar school but grammar was not taught in English, only in Spanish, German, French and Latin. Of course the basics such as nouns and verbs were identified, but there was very little else. I was perhaps fortunate, born in Germany and with a German mother, I spoke both German and English, and as my mother wrestled to learn English I learned grammar with her.

In spite of little instruction in grammar most of my classmates managed to easily pass O levels though. Perhaps they absorbed it through exposure to good quality texts and repetitive exercises .
 
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ETS: Oh, and it's also 'should have/ should've could have/ could've etc, rather than should of'


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Oh thank you God that someone else gets annoyed with this. People even say it! AARRGGHHH!!!! It drives me up the wall! It is so Vicky Pollard!

Oh, and I am not a fusty old f*rt! Just a bit OCD!!
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What a brilliant post!!! I'm with the old farts on this one, having had a good Scottish education where spelling, times tables and handwriting were all taught (yes, I know, it was a long time ago)!
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