Are Poor Spellers Stupid?? This Is Your Answer !!

Originally posted by loves a conspiricy
I find people who cannot spell are generally as not well versed in math either....so they are far from genius and a stones throw away from stupid

In this is instance, ''stone'' is a possessive noun, so there should be an apostrophe before the second ''s''. Still, you were a stone's throw from getting it correct. Also, I'm pretty sure that a smiley is not a valid substitute for a full stop in written English.

One of the main problems for Grammar Nazis - as they attempt to mock and ridicule those who they feel to have inferior spelling - is that they've got to make sure that their spelling and grammar is absolutely 100% correct, or else they'll end up with egg on their faces.




In terms of the topic at hand, I doubt that, in most cases, there's any correlation between spelling and intelligence. Spelling ability appears to differ mainly because of how people process and memorise information. For example, someone with photographic memory, who can accurately recall a car's number plate after just one glance, is not necessarily more intelligent than a person who memorises a number plate by reading it as a string of digits and letters, despite the fact that you're more likely to erroneously recall the number plate using the latter method.

The purpose of language is to communicate information to others, and as long as it's intelligible and understandable, then correct spelling and grammar are irrelevancies in most walks of life.

Only a few broomstick-up-the-bum pedants make an issue out of spelling and grammar.

reply to post by CherubBaby


Poor spellers, no.

People who purposely misspell words, without a doubt.

u no rite, lik wbu huh? dey r js rly smrt bro. lv dem alon...

gah I want to punch myself now...

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes


GOD ITS YOU..

Talk about .. whatever you said..

you're always a negative nancy..

far out

I had a teacher who said, "The worst sin in writing is ambiguity." And that, I think, is the more important point. It's not so much the spelling and grammatical mistakes that I deplore; it's the disrespect for the one doing the reading. Consider: If your writing is so bad that one has to back up and re-read it--sometimes repeatedly--to understand what you mean to say, then you're disrespecting the reader and forcing them to do unnecessary work instead of doing the work yourself.

The point is this: It's not "grammar" Nazism; it's a demand that you respect us enough to organize your thoughts and make your meaning clear. I can stand a few oversights; but I hate you when you deliberately refuse to read your own words for clarity before you cast them out into the world....

My father was a science/math teacher and his brother a physicist, but dad could not spell and often asked us to help with the spelling in his work. At that time writing, spelling, was easy. I had a very balanced left and right brain hemispheres according to a test, and this was very easy. However, with thyroid and chronic fatigue, my left functioning, most structure and spelling is gone. I'm very right hemisphered. In IQ tests the difference between getting in the 130's and 154, was the left brain geometric type questions. So, its very possible to be a right hemisphered genius and have your writing awkward.

There are also numerous learning disabilities, neurological such as apraxia that interfere with spelling and structure, but in no way do they interfere with abstract reasoning. My youngest son has that, and he is very challenged with spelling, language, due to this condition, but on the abstract tests, he was several grades ahead of everyone.

I'm a horrible speller and worse with grammar (see...wanted to spell that "grammer"), but I don't know if that makes me stupid or not.

However, I don't really care. I don't care that I'm bad at spelling...I care less about the grammar rules I don't remember...and I care even less if people think that makes me stupid.


I do have an opinion on those that like to point out spelling and grammar errors...I think they have very low self confidence in themselves and have the need to point out these errors so they can feel like they are better than someone else.

If I help people feel good about themselves because of my poor spelling/grammar...then I have done good in the world

reply to post by DoctorSatan

I'm interested in your hiroshima statement. can you provide references?

reply to post by Flavian


That sounds like my 7 year old. He gets extra help in spelling & reading(plus, we hired a private tutor), but he is actually a math genius...Last year, his teacher was so stunned by his speed in answering quick math problems she threw at him, that she had another teacher come in and observe him, because she said she never seen anything like it.....I WISH he was as good at reading/spelling, but, hey, I'll take what I can get

Originally posted by loves a conspiricy
reply to post by CherubBaby

 

They aren't necessarily stupid...they may not be able to work the spell checker on their computer

I find people who cannot spell are generally as not well versed in math either....so they are far from genius and a stones throw away from stupid

That's a bit of rubbish. I'm hyperlexic and hypercalculic, but never had an interest in grammar or spelling. I was in advanced mathematics and science classes, and scored 99th percentile on standardized tests for both subjects year after year.

The English language is bizarre, and seems to be highly inefficient, and illogical. Too many exceptions to the rules. I wasn't interested much in things like that. Over the years my spelling has gotten better, but it's still just fair at best.

reply to post by j.r.c.b.


Good to hear. And if he has brothers or sisters, hopefully they are doing the proper sibling thing and periodically giving him a ribbing!

Mean that part jest part serious. Sibling rivalry is good for toughing you up for later life. And frankly, it won't matter anyway in later life when he is designing rockets / satellites or coming up with complicated algorithms for supercomputers!

reply to post by CherubBaby


This is 2011. Spell-Check is available in every browser. Worst case scenario? You can google the word and it will ask you "Don't you mean XXX?"

People who cannot communicate verbally using a fairly standard self-correcting interface? Lazy and / or stupid. Perhaps both.

Proof read, people. Poor grammar, spelling and punctuation are like a lampshade on your head at 4pm. Most people won't mention it, but very few will excuse it.

i normally make spelling mistakes and i am bery bad with punctuation but i am quite intelligent

Originally posted by 0zzymand0s
People who cannot communicate verbally using a fairly standard self-correcting interface? Lazy and / or stupid. Perhaps both.

No, they are communicating perfectly adequately.

They're just not bothered about communicating in the prissy, outmoded and excessive exactitudes which Grammar Nazis would like them to.

''Im goin 2 there party tonite'' is just as easy to understand as ''I'm going to their party tonight''. Therefore, those who misspell are perfectly fine at communicating, just so long as it's intelligible.

those of us sans a spellcheck running in the background... tend to communicate in a phonetic way...

the miss-spellings are a badge of honor & utility, it declare unabashedly that 'we' are not hornswaggled to being conventional....

besides, in my case i had/have a degree of Dyslexia and doing right handed typing

Originally posted by Sherlock Holmes

Originally posted by 0zzymand0s
People who cannot communicate verbally using a fairly standard self-correcting interface? Lazy and / or stupid. Perhaps both.

No, they are communicating perfectly adequately.

They're just not bothered about communicating in the prissy, outmoded and excessive exactitudes which Grammar Nazis would like them to.

''Im goin 2 there party tonite'' is just as easy to understand as ''I'm going to their party tonight''. Therefore, those who misspell are perfectly fine at communicating, just so long as it's intelligible.

I honestly disagree with this statement - "Im goin 2 there party tonite" takes a second or so longer to process so it therefore is not as simple to understand as "I'm going to their party tonight" which is understood instantly.

Doesn't make much difference but the difference is still there......

reply to post by CherubBaby


There is a huge difference between making TYPOS, "sloppy mistakes"...and outright retarded spelling like mistaking "their", "there", "they are" etc.....how do you think does this look TO ME (as a non native English speaker!) if someone born in an English speaking country does not even know their own language?

What can i expect from someone debating and arguing online if they cannot even communicate right?

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes


to be honest i dont think 'txt' language can be interpretted as bad spelling as all language develops, old english is very different from the english we use today and maybe 'txt' language is just a new development.

like you said, if you can understand it then who cares how it spelt.

also, can i cum to da party, i didnt get my invite

reply to post by Flavian


It might take a second more to process ( depending on how you personally process information like this ), but it's still as easy to understand as if it's spelt correctly.

It's not as if someone is going to be completely flummoxed when drawing the meaning from the sentence.

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes


But that is exactly the point i am making - if it takes even a nano second longer then it isn't as simple to process. Possibly in fifty or a hundred years it will be quicker to process this info as our brains evolve to cope with language that has become the norm but at the moment it takes slightly longer so it cannot be as simple.

As an ex teacher, i am possibly harsher on this subject than i have a right to be but i can tell you that in all honesty it used to bloody frustrate me attempting to decipher some of the work that would be handed in!

reply to post by 0zzymand0s


Well...I hope all of us make you feel a little better about yourself.

Glad I could help