The Spelling Debate

The Spelling Debate:

We live in a world where texting, tweeting and instant messenging or writing messages on a DS is a part of who you are as learners. Is spelling no longer important in 2011? If you think this way then you probably believe that spell check, invented spelling and other ways of communicating are more important than spelling a word exactly or the way the dictionary says .  OR…. If you think that spelling tests, the dictionary and correct spelling is as important to you today as it was 100 years ago then you believe that spelling correct spelling is very important.

Please explain why you think this…back up your answer and “check for errors..ooops…did I say that?”

Here are two articles that may help you:

http://www.growingkids.co.uk/effect-text-messaging-spelling.html

or http://www.cbc.ca/news/pointofview/2010/12/spelling-is-it-important-to-do-it-properly.html

C U L8er

22 Comments on The Spelling Debate

  1. Ananya
    March 6, 2012 at 5:15 pm (12 years ago)

    In my Opinion, spelling correctly is still important but I also think that sometimes in okay to spell in short forms.

    It is important to spell correctly because if you want to write a letter to someone like your grandparents and you write in short forms they won’t understand anything you said. Also what if you have a job where you need to write on paper and pencil and you don’t know how to spell that would be really bad so most of the time you need to spell correctly. If the teacher tells you to write a peom or a paragraph and you write everything in short form no one will understand what you wrote.

    I would still not want to spell everything perfectly because what if you are in a rush or what if you are on facebook. You wouldn’t want to spell every single word right on facebook because than it would kind of just be boring for other people. If you’re just taking jot notes you might want to write it in short form instead of spelling everything right.

    These are the reasons why I thing spelling is still important but there is nothing bad in writing in short form either.

  2. kirthan
    March 6, 2012 at 5:21 pm (12 years ago)

    Yes,spelling is important because with out spelling it would effect your talking so if there was no spelling you would talk like this,because everyone would use short forms for everything.Which is really annoying.Also with out spelling you would not know some short forms they are using.Also with out spelling people might use short forms for everything that’s bad because any of the letters you use for short form can be mean something for example if there is a letter s for short form it could mean many different things.Also if there is no spelling and you have to write a paragraph you might think spelling doe’s not matter and you will write stuff that are way off that you will think it is a different word.Also with out spelling you can’t write a letter to some one about your job you might write a word wrong and the might look like another word which could mean some thing bad.Which after you wrote it all wrong you will likely not get your job.Also if they don’t care about spelling reading a book the words in the book will be all messed up.
    This is why I think spelling should matter.

  3. sakshi
    March 6, 2012 at 5:25 pm (12 years ago)

    Correct spelling is important but sometimes it is fun to write in different ways.

    When you are at school you should use correct spelling so you would know the real and correct way to spell the word.
    You should also spell correctly at school because some people say the words right if they know the right spelling.In English there are many words that are similar to each other so if you try to spell a word like that someone might think that you are trying spelling another word.
    If we don’t spell words properly in about 20 years that is how everyone will spell the words and that will be considered the “Right” way to spell the word.

    Spelling is not that important at home because people like to spell the way it is not usually spelled. It makes it faster to text, email someone or to message someone.

    I still would like people spelling the way it is correct and not any other way.
    But there isn’t a lot of difference in spelling the right way or spelling the wrong way.

    By sakshi

  4. kindreeluke
    March 6, 2012 at 5:59 pm (12 years ago)

    I think that spelling is important because it is professional, it shows you that you care about how you spell, if you miss spell a word people might be confused what you are trying to say. In the future people are going to be typing like this. ” lol dude that so lol man can t wait t till llll we gettt to goo!!!!!!!!@!!@!!@!! snoweboardeing is goingg t0 bee AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” so people need to work on there spelling and even gramer before it looks and maybe even sounds like that.

  5. riyam
    March 6, 2012 at 9:56 pm (12 years ago)

    I think spelling is very important…

    1.The first reason is when you are useing short forms.some people will be confuse . so when we write should everyone understand what does it mean?

    2.we need to spell words when we want to write information , apply for job, write letter for friends.

    I think spelling is very Impotant!!!!!

    by:Riyam

  6. Ariq Ahsan
    March 6, 2012 at 10:01 pm (12 years ago)

    I have studied two articles which are about if text messaging is ruining peoples spelling are not. I have discovered many facts from reading these two articles. One of the facts I have found is that Oregon Public Schools will be allowed to use spell checkers. Another thing is that text messaging has become very common in the current time. Something else is that people always rely on the speed of communications when they send a text message. Did you know that text messaging has its own unique culture style?
    From studying those two articles I have found many opinions as well. One of the opinions I found is that text messaging doesn’t make spelling any worse. Another thing is that is that someone said “In order to make this as quick as possible an entirely new language of text speak has emerged”. Teenagers are the group of people who text message the most because text messaging is cheaper than calling.
    In my opinion I say that text messages do NOT ruin peoples spelling because text messaging is just a fun, short and fast way of using words. For example
    • OMG = Oh my God
    • Str8 = straight
    • 2moz or 2moro = tomorrow
    • 2G2BT = too good to be true
    • LOL = laugh out loud
    BUT when you writing a newspaper, book or any article you should make sure you have correct spelling. You should do this because people need to know what you are saying when you are writing an article. And another reason is that a lot of people do not know what these short formed words mean. Plus when someone gets a text message he may think that a word that is in short form means something else.
    Over all I can conclude that there that short formed words does not ruin English but at the at the same time it is not appropriate some times.

  7. keonsimmons
    March 7, 2012 at 3:51 pm (12 years ago)

    I think that spelling is important because if your writing a test or sending something to your teacher you should use proper spelling.Not spelling like G2G LOL TTYL if your are talking to a friend, it’s different then writing in class. My sister Aliyah texted TTYL to my aunt and she sent back what you are saying? She said “talk to you later”. Spelling is important if your sending something to your friend or BFF but its different if you send it to your teacher or for academic reasons.

    Mr.Woods—Well said Keon…I really like your example about your sister’s text to your Aunt….being literate in technology can be tricky. No text is neutral..right?

  8. Mackenzie
    March 7, 2012 at 4:37 pm (12 years ago)

    I think spelling is important, if it’s for something really important. If you’re talking to your friends example…through e-mail, msn, texting and what not then I don’t think it really matters. If you’re writing something really important for school then you’re gonna to want to spell it write. I know for sure if you showed my grandma anything spelt wrong or with wrong grammar she would **FREAK OUT** no joke you have to spell write in front of my grandma. When if you spell something wrong in front of my mom I don’t think she’ll notice and don’t think I am this rude person because she said I could write that.

  9. ANAMI
    March 7, 2012 at 4:52 pm (12 years ago)

    My opinion is that spelling is important but when you are text messaging it is okay to write sort forms.

    I also think that spelling is important because if you are always writing short forms sometimes you forget how to write it properly because you were writing short forms most of the time.When you should really write words properly and not in short form in my opinion is when you are writing letters or sending mail.

    This is why we should spell words properly and not in short form!

  10. Aya
    March 7, 2012 at 5:22 pm (12 years ago)

    Correct spelling is important,but short form spelling is fun.

    Correct spelling is important because if you want to do your homework and you write short form words the teacher might not understand or if you want to write a letter to your grandparents they might not understand because they might not use short forms or they are not used to it. It’s fun to use short form word because if your chatting with your friend you could use them like omg,brb,bff,lol but if you use them with teachers or grandparents they wont really understand.

    That’s why correct spelling is important and short forms are fun.

  11. aira
    March 7, 2012 at 5:36 pm (12 years ago)

    My opinion is that writing in short form and writing properly are both important.
    One of my reasons is text messaging in short form doesn’t make your spelling any worse. Yes you may get use to going it but it doesn’t affect your spelling.
    Another reason is text messaging in short form is a nice and fast way to say something like
    OMG = Oh my God or STR8 = straight or 2MOZ/2MORO = tomorrow or 2G2BT = too good to be true or LOL = laugh out loud or BFF = best friends forever or CYA = see ya or KK = ok ok/ ok cool or K = ok or Y = why or 4 = for or 2 = too/to or GTG = got to go or HBU = how bout you or U = you or TTYL = talk to you later or l8tr = later or THO = though or CYL = call you later/ see you later or THX = thanks or NP = no problem or BRB = be right back or NVM = never mind or ROFL/ROTFL = rolling or on floor laughing or SMH = shaking my head or IDC = I don’t care or HM = how much or IDK = I don’t know or TYVM = thank you very much or GL = good luck.
    My final reason is that if there is someone who doesn’t understand short forms or if you are writing a news paper you will need to write properly or else it is ok to use short forms.
    These are all my reasons.

  12. cam
    March 7, 2012 at 5:43 pm (12 years ago)

    Spelling is important. But if you are texting someone or on msn I Don’t think it matters if you spell stuff wrong or not proper grammar. But if you are doing something important. Like for an example if you go to a job interview and you give them your job application and you use not proper grammar. Like I work at electric plant or posting stuff on your blog like lol,brb,idk,idc g2g then some people might not know what you are talking about. So it is important in some ways and not important in some ways.

  13. raafiah
    March 7, 2012 at 6:09 pm (12 years ago)

    i think spelling is important because some people dosen’t understand wrong spelling. It will affect how u say too! if u every time wrote LOL then u would start to say it. but i think it’s ok to do it in emails,msn,and facebook etc. but if it is school work then u would not get any marks for spelling.
    for people who r serious for spelling u would not
    rite incorrect words
    these r all my reasons.

  14. nabeel
    March 7, 2012 at 7:54 pm (12 years ago)

    In my opinion spelling isn’t that important but sometimes it is important. I think that because text messaging is fast and fun it also costs less money so people don’t have to pay that much. In the first article it says that text messaging doesn’t affect a persons writing skills. So go ahead teenagers and other people text message knowing that it won’t effect your writing.

    On the other hand if you’re talking to teachers or you’re writing a newspaper article or stuff like that you don’t want to put short form letters like OMG,BFF,G2G,LOL. You know why, because then other people won’t understand you and most old people don’t know what those short forms mean. So if you are writing a newspaper article or writing something for a teacher don’t use those words.

    Some of these words are CMIIW meaning correct me if I’m wrong, BBIAS meaning be back in a sec, 1NAM meaning one in a million, AMAP meaning as much as possible, DBEYR meaning don’t believe everything you read, EOD meaning end of day, FOMC meaning falling off my chair and lots more.

  15. nabeel
    March 7, 2012 at 7:55 pm (12 years ago)

    In my opinion spelling isn’t that important but sometimes it is important. I think that because text messaging is fast and fun it also costs less money so people don’t have to pay that much. In the first article it says that text messaging doesn’t affect a persons writing skills. So go ahead teenagers and other people text message knowing that it won’t effect your writing.

    On the other hand if you’re talking to teachers or you’re writing a newspaper article or stuff like that you don’t want to put short form letters like OMG,BFF,G2G,LOL. You know why, because then other people won’t understand you and most old people don’t know what those short forms mean. So if you are writing a newspaper article or writing something for a teacher don’t use those words.

    Some of these words are CMIIW meaning correct me if I’m wrong, BBIAS meaning be back in a sec, 1NAM meaning one in a million, AMAP meaning as much as possible, DBEYR meaning don’t believe everything you read, EOD meaning end of day, FOMC meaning falling off my chair etc.

  16. luka
    March 7, 2012 at 7:56 pm (12 years ago)

    Spelling is very important but its different to who you’re talking to,
    because if you’re talking to your friend it doesn’t really matter because it’s not for something very important, but if your posting something on the internet to spelling is very important but its different to who you’re talking to,
    because if you’re talking to your friend it doesn’t really matter because it’s not for something very important, but if your posting something on the internet to be public or doing something in school than that should have correct spelling. if you are Appling for a job and you have horrible spelling like: i WnT tIs joB cUs i M gOooD wIth Tking.
    You probably won’t get accepted for the job. and one other reason is sometimes you have no clue what they’re saying and it gets annoying when you’re trying to figure out how to do something important and you don’t know what there talking about.

    That is my opinion on spelling
    -Luka

  17. Hala
    March 7, 2012 at 8:23 pm (12 years ago)

    in my opinion spelling is very important but the short way is easier and more fun. i don’t we should use the short way a lot but when we do its not a big deal. were not gonna forget the English language we just use texting a lot. we have to write in proper English once in a while to so when we have to write something important like a assay we can write it in proper English cause with something important like that you can’t write it in the short way. also when were talking to out friends its way easier to type LOL then to type laugh out loud. that’s my opinion.

  18. Zoe
    March 7, 2012 at 9:12 pm (12 years ago)

    I think spelling is very important because……

    What if you are writing a pop quiz. For ex. no teacher would be using the slang `lol` or `btw` she would be using proper language. I am guesing some of the people don’t understand lol or btw(laugh out loud, by the way) How do we understand a quiz with text message language. Some of us might not understand.

    If you kept typing or writing lol or btw or g2g it WILL AFECT YOUR LANGUAGE. You like to type or write it and now you are so used to it that you start to use it when you talk and it CAN BE RUDE TO OTHER PEOPLE!

    If you are writing a letter to apply for a job, guess what, you might not get the job because the person reading the letter doesn’t understand slang. Sometimes people won’t understand the language you are speaking.

    It’s okay to use slang language if you are texting a friend or sending an email. YOU CAN’T USE SLANG WHENEVER YOU FEEL LIKE IT YOU HAVE TO SPEAK PROPERLY!

  19. Rhianne
    March 7, 2012 at 9:26 pm (12 years ago)

    I think that spelling is super important because it you don’t learn how to spell smaller words properly when you’re young, it will become harder when you’re older to learn to spell bigger words. Plus if you read a lot you can improve your spelling because you learn new words. It’s better to spell properly when you’re texting, emailing or writing and not use slang because people may not understand what you’re saying. My mom told me that one day she sent an email to her friend and she used UR instead of YOUR and her friend got upset with her and asked her to please stop using the shortform because it really annoyed her. Now my mom can’t use shortforms when she’s texting her friend. Spelling is very important to my parents and they are always telling us to fix our spelling but sometimes they use shortforms when they text and email us and their friends. If you are texting, emailing or writing to your boss you should use proper spelling and not use slang words because then it might look like you are not responsible or professional enough to have the job. People will think that you’re smart if you know how to spell properly. They will think better of you if you spell properly.

    By: Rhianne

  20. nethra
    March 8, 2012 at 6:25 am (12 years ago)

    I think that it is important to spell correctly for some things but other things you don’t need to have correct spelling. You need to have correct spelling when you are writing on paper because there is nothing to correct you if you make a mistake. Unless you keep a dictionary next to you .If you are on the computer you don’t need your spelling to be perfect because the computer will fix the spelling. While texting you use short forms and you do not need to know your spellings.
    In today’s day and age, the usage of pen and paper is very less because computers are used the most and in the future I think knowing your spellings will not be that important due to this reason.

  21. elijah
    March 8, 2012 at 7:06 pm (12 years ago)

    Spelling is very inportmant because if you’re talking to your friend it doesn’t really matter if you say that to your grandmother she will has no clue what you just said. The other reason is it’s not proper grammer. My example is when i was little my older brother said lol to me and i said what does that mean he said laugh out loud. That why use proper grammer.

  22. rasheda
    March 10, 2012 at 1:20 pm (12 years ago)

    Spelling the right way is important but if you want to say something quickly then you would use short form instead. If you wanted to tell somebody be right back instead you would say brb. But sometimes I think that some people are using short form to much.

    People still need to pay attention to there spelling because in the future we could end up using short form and wrong grammar every single time we speak. I am not saying that I am against using short form it is fun to do just that some people that use it to much need to use it a little less. It is fun to figure out how to say things in short form but using it in every single sentence you text or write is not the best thing to do because you can end up talking the same way you text.

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