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

reply to post by Flavian


As an ex-teacher, you should put a hyphen in between ''ex'' and ''teacher'', otherwise it looks like you were a teacher on the subject of ''ex''. Nah, I'm only messing around with you.
Smarmy Grammar Nazis are one of my pet peeves, so I wouldn't go down that avenue.

If something in written form takes fractionally longer to process for most people, then I don't see anything wrong with that. It's up to the reader to decide whether they want to read it or not.

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes



Genius! Victim of my own grammar nazism! I'm going to have to go write some lines now........

reply to post by CoherentlyConfused


i never new till about half way through
that they were spelt wrong

reply to post by Flavian


It depends on how people process information. I can tell you without a doubt that I process laymen slang much faster than proper jargon. I read shorthand, txt style, and broken English faster than I could speak it.

Besides, there can be much more information transmitted by breaking from the standards. You get a feel for someone's personality, mood changes, etc..

It's much more efficient use of our time to break away a bit. Invent your own words, create your own syntax structure. Use that gray matter upstairs!

Spelling in the English language? Or all Languages?

I know Spanish and English and I can spell anything in Spanish - the system is consistent. The English language, especially common American, is an abomination of confusing, inconsistent rules. In fact, to spell in English you need to MEMORIZE the way things are spelled, you cannot spell phonetically because the language is such a mess. While we commonly use less than a 1000 words - we could memorize that much, with another 250k in words to use there is no way to memorize them too, and sadly, given the mess the system is, we can't count on phonetic consistency to help. Language is used to communicate, if the communication happens the all is good, if not a change needs to be made - the fact that English does not lend itself to consistency via the spelling of the words, or the placement of said words makes it a flawed system. Think "i before e, except after c..." To say nothing of the fact that in the legal system words spelled the same as the colloquial spelling have totally different meanings - "understand" in everyday life means to comprehend, but in the legal world it means to "stand-under" and submit to the terms of conditions presented.

So, the question should not be "are poor spellers stupid" but "are those who created the modern English language stupid?" And the answer is of course, yes.

Originally posted by theovermensch
I make more dysphonetic errors than phonetic.So Im not stupid,its just a hiccup in my lexical processing.

Ditto
I find I have a very wide field of knowleadge and diction especially when talking and observing the responses of other people.
YET..... Whenever I respond in writting/typing it never fails, unless I spend a ton of time reading and rereading my written response, I screw up the spelling or grammar everytime. (I'll bet it's happen here too!:puz

P.S. I I.Q. tested at 140 and my wife refers to me as "The absent-mind Professor"

Originally posted by DoctorSatan
Here's something interesting.
Mistranslation between Japan and America caused the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
So people with bad spelling stupid? No, they are extremely dangerous.

Elaborate please. I was under the impression that Japans declaration of war/attack on Pear Harbor coupled with their uncompromising war ethics were what brought the US to drop bombs on those cities.

Originally posted by grubblesnert
P.S. I I.Q. tested at 140 and my wife refers to me as "The absent-mind Professor"

I'm very much like you!
I got an IQ in the 140's, I'm am luckily gifted in many fields! ^^

My only flaw is my spelling and punctuation. I actually failed some exams because of my lack for language skills.

Originally posted by Flavian
reply to post by Sherlock Holmes

 

Genius!

Victim of my own grammar nazism!

I'm going to have to go write some lines now........

But??

We all know people who spell like a retard on purpose. Was this not an issue?

I also dislike people who bang on about typos, or an occasional grammar fub.

wot abt ppl wot lyk 2 tlk lyk idits ?

No time for them, none at all..

sherlock, do you disagree?
??

reply to post by CherubBaby


I read the article. It failed to mention that issues with hearing and how one processes sound have much to do with a person's ability to spell and speak.

The worst spellers I know have horrible ears; one is nearly tone deaf. But not stupid.

There is simply no link between good spelling and intelligence. I don't know a single PhD (and I know more than a few!) who can spell accurately. This person is quite possibly the worst speller I've ever witnessed, yet look at her bio! And although I am no pedantic, this person claims to be and yet I can find several errors in her text.

I also have a daughter with dysphasia. Her elder brother and younger sister are both linguistically gifted: her brother speaks five languages and her sister is working on her seventh presently. My (dysphasic) daughter has no end of trouble with spelling, grammar, vocabulary - and not just in one but both of her home languages. The other two clearly have none. But is she less intelligent? Not in the least. Is she less witty or clever? Not at all. But she has trouble with language, to be sure.

When she was in fourth grade and I started proceedings to have her put into a normal school, they said she would never get in to high school. They said that even if she did, the problems with her dysphasia would overwhelm her, her social problems would be immense. None of that was true. She graduated high school (locally known as lukio in Finland) and has gone on to study further. They wouldn't cut her any slack for her matriculation. She had to perform as well as a "normal" student. They do give some points leeway to dyslexics, but not to dysphasics.

Interesting article, including the conclusion, which is if you don't like being judged by your typos, get over it. You will be anyway. The article also DOES suggest there is a correlation between spelling and intelligence. That doesn't mean that if you're dyslexic and make spelling errors because of it that you ARE stupid. It DOES mean that there is a correlation. Really stupid people tend to be poor spellers, if they are literate at all. Really smart people tend to be good spellers. That does not mean all smart people are good spellers; it just means the trend is valid.

What the article does not do very well is distinguish between bad spelling and poor grammar. Although they may also be related, they are different issues. If you see someone type "teh" for "the"--such a common typo that it has become a bit of a joke with its own entries in Wikipedia and the Urban Dictionary--we all know it is a common typo and we all know it likely has nothing to do with your intelligence. But when you see people mix up "their/there/they're" or "it's/its" it may have something to do with intelligence, but it also may have to do with being unschooled. One thing for certain: It does display ignorance, in the technical sense of the term, not the pejorative sense. Ignorance does not equal stupidity; it just looks like it.

Now, there are those here who insist it doesn't matter. Perhaps it does not for you, personally, but in general it does matter because lack of spelling and grammar skills limits you. As an employer I cannot allow you to write a letter on company letterhead if your skills are so poor as to make the company look stupid. If you make typos on your resume, it shows a lack of attention to detail and means the resume gets tossed in the wastebasket. As a publisher, if you send me an article riddled with typos, I'll reject it in disgust. If I am an editor and pull a manuscript out of the slush pile with poor grammar, it goes right back in.

We have a person right now who has a Master's degree in her field. She is in a management position which requires her to write reports, give presentations to the Board, and interact with the outside community in organizations like Kiwanis or Rotary. It's part of the job and is a requirement. It's not optional. She expects to be promoted. She won't be because her presentation skills, especially writing, are so poor. Indeed, anything she writes must be reviewed by someone who is a competent writer before it is let out into circulation. I wonder why she was promoted into her current position in the first place, but I can't do anything about that. I think she was just there at the right time and not properly vetted.

This person is not stupid, but for whatever reason her lack of writing competence means that she will not be promoted within this organization. It has limited her. This is not unusual. A couple of years ago the Board told the CEO they did not want to hear any more presentations from Person X. They were poor and disorganized. A few months later that person was fired. Now if you work at McD's slinging Big Macs, perhaps it doesn't matter to you, but if you don't pay attention to this sort of thing, you've narrowed your window of opportunity and are going to have to find another way to get the big bucks. Perhaps you can, but the point is that you won't have access to a wide a field as you would if you were competent in the rather minor issues of spelling and grammar that you ought to have learned in junior high school.

In my opinion, barring any ailments, poor spelling and grammar are indicative of a lazy mind, lack of mental acuity, or deficient aptitude.

Originally posted by InTheFlesh1980
In my opinion, barring any ailments, poor spelling and grammar are indicative of a lazy mind, lack of mental acuity, or deficient aptitude.

Actually that is the problem. If poor spelling is a sign of stupidity or ignorance is moot (no the word is not mute).

People judge you on you spelling and grammar - fair or not that is the way it is. I am an atrocious speller but Firefox is always there correcting my missteps.

It really dosen't make a wit of difference but without meeting someone it gives the only clues of education, exposure to ideas and how well the writer is read.

Sometimes life is just not fair.

Originally posted by CoherentlyConfused
Arocdnicg to rsceearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. Tihs is buseace the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

WOW, i was albe to raed eevry tihng you wehre saiyng!

Carzy

Bust jecause I'm a little lisdexic doesn't cessenarily mean I'm stucking fupid! If that sentence made sense to you, you could be dislexic...
Makes perfect sense to me.

Originally posted by loves a conspiricy
Now we have terms for lacking ability in these skills....Dyslexia, and Dyscalculia.

Are you suggesting that those terms are invalid or an excuse? Because I assure you, you are wrong if that is what you believe.

I spell beautifully, just look at me, yet I suffer from dyslexia myself and just the other day I was half-admiring, half-disdaining my attempt to type Youtube that became "Yuutboe" or something ridiculous.

It's a good thing people don't have to sing and write making music melodies.
So many "stupid" people out there with no musical sense!!

No human being is perfect and we all have lacking areas of intelligence.
This doesn't mean that everyone is stupid.

reply to post by phoenix0714


Actually you sentence made perfect sense since I mostly do speed reading. No dyslexia here heh

reply to post by CherubBaby


I am an awful speller and if I'm in a rush posting something I always get really mad that my good valid point gets ignored and one incorrect spelling gets pulled up instead. And know we are not stupid. I managed to get an A in English at school despite my bad spelling. People should focus on the points made, they are 100 times more important than spelling, unless it is so bad you can not make sense of it which is VERY rare.