Writing Lessons & Advice: Spelling
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Those who know me well know I love the Peanuts comics and specials! I’m most familiar with the holiday episodes so I’m expanding my horizons by delving into the other features; one of which is the 1969 film A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The premise of this story is that Charlie Brown surprises everyone by progressing through some major spelling bee competitions. During his preparatory studies, Charlie, Linus, and Snoopy break out into a song, aptly titled “I Before E Except after C”, which puts several spelling rules to lyric form.
My Spotify knows I’m a low-key Swiftie...fast-forward fifty years from Charlie Brown to Taylor Swift’s Lover album. The single, “Me”, in its early days of release, contained the preppy chant, “Hey kids! Spelling is fun!” and transitioned into some spelling facts like no I in team but there is a me and awesome can’t be spelled without it either. Swift stated that a fun tone was the intention with those particular lyrics, but unfortunately enough criticism led to removing them.
Whether you think the act of presenting letters in an accepted sequence really does rule or you are riled by it, spelling quality is consequential to written communication for better or worse. It is a simple yet significant influence on a reader’s understanding and perception of a writer. It can even go so far as to impact some “real-world”, business-professional contexts like mail/message delivery, identification, data entry, or record-keeping. Also, scam messages tend to be characterized by poor spelling and other typos.
Older generations of students, at least in English and/or American education, may have gone through dedicated blocks of learning time devoted to spelling words, tests, or other related activities during the first five to eight years of schooling. For a long time, spelling has been considered an important part of language arts development and thus given more emphasis during the formative years. As such, this camp might have gotten to a point after those years where spelling became somewhat innate, if not less thought-about if/when grades didn't depend as much on it. However, another camp of learners may not be getting nearly as much time with it. Education Week noted that, in a 2021 report, hundreds of schools, districts, and assessments have dropped explicit spelling instruction and tests in light of spell checking technology, AI, and changes in educational focus points.
Whichever camp one starts in, the need or occasion for spelling as its own study tends to diminish when entering higher academics, if not professional realms as well. And these areas generally expect correct spelling in work--likely regardless of which camp one comes from. To drive home this assumption, Stanford notes improper spelling among the top twenty errors that regularly occur in academic writing. Then with respect to the workplace, CNBC shares these statistics from a survey completed by employees of the language-learning platform, Babbel:
“88% of people said they’ve regretted the contents and language of an email right after sending it, and 28% even say an email has hurt their careers...
...48% of people surveyed said they judge typos in work emails more harshly than they might on chat platforms like Slack or teams.”
More still, the resume service, TopResume, notes, “Poor spelling and bad grammatical construction can suggest you're not focused on the details – which could indicate you lack vital skills needed for the job.” I can even speak to personal/professional experience that misspellings add more work to those involved, impede record searches, and delay processes, if not deny them altogether. All in all, spelling is one writing detail that cannot be ignored at the risk of some rather significant consequences.
So, what are some things that can be done to meet such expectations? One good first step is to edit written work before passing it along. Look it over or ask someone to look it over for any obvious misspellings or incorrect words and change accordingly. The effort is worth the time.
Another consideration is to double-check your spell check, auto-fill, or any other AI/automated writing tools that are used. As I’ve explained in a few other lessons, the smart features aren’t always as dependably smart as one might like. They may recognize right away when a few letters are flubbed in a word, but won’t always catch words that are easily confused or they’ll flag an otherwise acceptable spelling/phrase because its unfamiliar to the default programming. I do recognize that some tools or features may be trained or tweaked in how they respond to specific things, but if nothing else, mind and check your checker’s work or turn off the checker altogether. Don’t keep all your eggs in one editing basket. One recent case in point at the time of this writing: I glossed over an application from someone who trained at a place called the Kiamichi Technology Center; however, their automated correction or auto-fill tools “corrected” Kiamichi to chicken. Someone else processed it later so I’m not sure what the final call was, but that automated edit would’ve needed to be edited back before approval if up to me.
Want to brush up or acquaint yourself with correct spelling?
Watch for easily confused words--Several are homophones, homonyms, or homographs, like beach and beech. Others might sound similar or “sound nice” in a particular place but may not actually fit the bill where definition or usage are concerned, like corroborate and collaborate. Again, correctly-spelled words in wrong places won’t always be flagged as errors unless a correction feature recognizes grammar or vocabulary as well. So it's important to know or check that the spelling used is for the intended part of speech or context. I’ll share a list, but many more like it are available too through your own search of commonly confused words. Dictionaries, thesauruses, or internet searches can also be referenced.
Incorporate fun-- Make learning and studying fun with games like Scrabble, Boggle, Hangman, word puzzles, Bananagrams, or quizzes. Engage with an immersive experience through reading, listening to reading, or using subtitles. Create visual or memory aids. If not, invest in some, like alphabet fridge magnets or foam letters. Even just simply writing--freely, creatively, any chance you can take--can allot some teachable moments.
Learn or remember some spelling rules-- Spelling rules are generalizations that describe spelling patterns of American/English words, like Charlie Brown’s “I before E except after C”. More are shared below in the source links. I even found a statistic saying that nearly 90% of English words can be spelled if a student knows basic patterns, principles, and rules of spelling.
Seek help if possible-- On one hand, this can be with a writing coach or tutor. On the other, chronic issues with misspelling can be signs of difficulties like dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, or ADHD.
From Schulz to Swift, playing with spelling (so to speak) can be fun, but it is something to take seriously. How ever much development with the skill that early schooling offers, it is an important one to carry into higher education, the workplace, and even life in general. Again, spelling quality reflects attention to detail, communication skills, and general intellect--all assets valued greatly in most employment. It puts a good foot forward in writing too. Hope you’re motivated to be more accountable for your spelling! It is not difficult to do.
If there’s a topic you want me to cover in the future, you’re welcome to reach out to me on the web chat features or socials!
Sources/further reading
Facts and figures
Spelling rules
Pop culture sources
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/taylor-swift-apparently-removed-spelling-is-fun-lyric-from-single-me
Comments