duz reely pore spelign mak yoy luk stoopid?

The Miracle wrote: z0mg j00 r sooooo kewl i got theh pwnt omgomgomgomgomgomgomg i t3h sux0rrrrr

!

I tend to be sloppy at times.

I guess being anal about spelling comes with being a prog snob?

Many of us are using emoticons... most people I know who hate poor spelling dislike the use of emoticons just as much. The emoticons come hand in hand with the 'MSN spelling' thing (kewl, lol, Im gr8, etc.).

Is it possible that you're all just being a bunch of hypocrites?

I forget who mentioned it in this thread, but someone said something like 'Improper spelling doesnt give an air of respectability or trustworthiness or something like that' and asked 'what would someone think of a resume or essay filled with spelling and grammatical errors?' Well, these are two completely different situations. Sorry, but spelling errors in formal writing is one thing, but on an internet forum? As long as the writing is coherent, who cares?

Another thing mentioned is the decline of reading books... While it is unfortunate that a lot of people are missing out on some great books, its not like there is nothing else out there... not EVERY television program is trash (even though it seems really trendy today to say so). Computer/Video games, despite being regularly dismissed as time consuming trash that rot children's minds and force them to commit violent acts, can be much more than just mindless 'shoot em up games'. There are many games that can stimulate the imagination just as much as many books do.

How come no one talks about trashy books? There are just as many TERRIBLE books as there are video games and TV shows. Just because something is printed means it's automatically more mentally stimulating than watching an episode of  Survivor?

It does not only make you look utterly uneducated, but also it scares people away, people who actually can spell and who probably could help you. It's really, really sad to see the horrible spelling of today's youth (I'm one of them actually, but I'm an exception to the rule, it seems).

Datz liek t0t@lly w0h!

Word.

Peter, I would normally have just said "Peter: ", but felt that was a cop-out, so I thought I'd write a full sentence.

I thoroughly agree with your words.  I always try and write/type as correctly as possible in ALL situations - whether it be writing notes, chatting to someone on a chat-client, or texting on my mobile 'phone - as I feel if I write/type in other fashions, I will lose the art of being able to write properly and this is most definitely a skill I do not wish to lose.

I really do not do enough reading, but then again, I do not watch much television either, but I do read websites and post in the forum, so even though I'm not reading an actual book, I believe I am still reading enough to get by for now.

You have said what I wanted to say, but in much better words.  Thank you!

Not really stupid, but a bit worse than perfect.
Apart from that, it seems that Spellbound 0.7.3. as suggested by the editor refuses to install on my firefox 1.5.0.6 (saying it is only compatible with 1.0+ )...

Hey, the development version (0.9.8) of SpellBound does install, but it doesn't work with the spelling button of the editor. Right click does the trick...

It doesn't like the title of this thread one bit though

Peter Rideout wrote:   On TV, everything is already done for you -- you just passively "receive." When you read, however -- whether it's  Jackie Collins, Stephen King, Dickens, or Shakespeare -- your brain is very active, and working hard to come up with mental images to accompany the text-- which you have to decode. Even if you're reading stuff with pictures (Archie comics, a motorcycle mag, fashion mag, whatever), you are still being exposed to (generally) proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. Whether you are aware of it or not, you are thus becoming a better writer every time you read, and also expanding your vocabulary.   Reading, in short, is simply very good for the brain, and very good for your language skills.  The hurried/lazy "who cares about spelling and grammar" approach to writing on forums and in chat rooms (where most of today's youth do the vast majority of their writing) starts to affect how you write in other, more important places (school, work, etc.) where spelling and grammar, etc., really matter. After seeing or writing it online a hundred times, you start to believe that "alot" is a word, that "the" is spelled "teh," than "u" and "pwnd" are words, and that written language conventions just don't really matter. Used to tossing out knee-jerk, glib, one line responses as quickly as you can type, I also believe you start to lose the ability to converse on a deeper, more careful level. When you don't read much properly-written or challenging stuff, you get a stunted vocabulary, and with limited vocabulary comes limited thinking/problem solving abilities, and overall poorer communication skills. Poor communication abilities will negatively affect all of your relationships: marital, personal, work, etc.

Great post Peter, I have thought about this and noticed that in the last 3-4 years my spelling and grammer has improved much (it was much worse, though I would never say that it was dreadfull), but isnt perfect. It just happens that in this time I have greatly reduced the amount of TV I watch due to a loss of interest and hugely increased the amount of books that I read. However I do text in "txt" speak but I find that to require more concentration than normal writing (I only do it to save time, and I refuse to use numbers!), probably as a result. I also enjoy playing computer games of many different genres so I think being balanced between all these different mediums is a good thing.

JJLehto wrote: I suport publik edekation