(no subject)
I've come to realize that I don't trust people who can't spell. When I was doing the internet dating thing (which I highly recommend, incidentally, even though I ultimately married a guy I met on the street), I weeded out all the lousy spellers. And every time I made an exception, I regretted it five minutes into the date. Granted, not all the good spellers were awesome, but they tended to be more snobby than jerky, which I tend to prefer.
And now, whenever I am looking for advice or how to solve some problem, if someone can't spell properly or uses lousy grammar, their advice immediately gets thrown out the window. The same goes for folks who throw curses into their speech as liberally as a valley girl throws in the word 'like.' It's all just super-distracting. If you can't take the time and effort to write down your thoughts correctly, I am going to assume that you don't take the time to properly complete anything in your life, and therefore your advice is useless.
But you know, that is a pretty big assumption. I spend a ton of time on the internet these days, and a LOT of people assume people who can't spell are ignorant in every other area of life. Somebody makes one spelling mistake in a forum, and everybody jumps down their throat. Readers completely miss the poster's point, or dismiss it as the advice of an ignorant person, just like I do. And while it's great to see so much emphasis on using the English language properly, it's still a lot of fairly baseless assumptions at best, and education/class-based prejudice at worst.
There are billions of people in this world. Most of them can't write in perfect English. But you know what? They still might know what they are talking about, in other areas. Some people who can't spell are awesome cooks. Some raised happy, healthy babies. Some can fix your car. Some are fantastic at math. These are the things I need to remember. If I am reading English teaching forums, fine, assume away. But I am going to have to start entertaining the idea that there is not just one kind of smart.
And now, whenever I am looking for advice or how to solve some problem, if someone can't spell properly or uses lousy grammar, their advice immediately gets thrown out the window. The same goes for folks who throw curses into their speech as liberally as a valley girl throws in the word 'like.' It's all just super-distracting. If you can't take the time and effort to write down your thoughts correctly, I am going to assume that you don't take the time to properly complete anything in your life, and therefore your advice is useless.
But you know, that is a pretty big assumption. I spend a ton of time on the internet these days, and a LOT of people assume people who can't spell are ignorant in every other area of life. Somebody makes one spelling mistake in a forum, and everybody jumps down their throat. Readers completely miss the poster's point, or dismiss it as the advice of an ignorant person, just like I do. And while it's great to see so much emphasis on using the English language properly, it's still a lot of fairly baseless assumptions at best, and education/class-based prejudice at worst.
There are billions of people in this world. Most of them can't write in perfect English. But you know what? They still might know what they are talking about, in other areas. Some people who can't spell are awesome cooks. Some raised happy, healthy babies. Some can fix your car. Some are fantastic at math. These are the things I need to remember. If I am reading English teaching forums, fine, assume away. But I am going to have to start entertaining the idea that there is not just one kind of smart.