It's not that I don't know how to spell things (believe me, I do), but I noticed that while typing or texting, I tend to disregard spelling errors, leaving the computer to correct my mistakes for me. Because of this, I tend not to learn from my spelling mistakes, and consequently, I never learn how to properly spell the words that I tend to misspell.
This poses a problem when writing on a physical paper, with a pen in your hand. There is no spell-check or auto-correct to help you when you don't know how to spell a word, and if you neglect a misspelled word, there won't be any red squiggly lines to notify you of your mistake.
Do you think that tools like auto-correct and spell-check are causing us to lose our elementary-level spelling skills?
Do you find yourself forgetting how to spell words that you know you should know how to spell, and do you think that is attributed to our increased usage of online communication, where corrective tools are available?
I too sometimes find myself misspelling some basic words that one would learn in kindergarten or in the early years of elementary. Sometimes it is the fact that I just forgot in that instance how to spell that word and other times it's just that my thumbs hit the wrong letter. Regardless of what the reason is, the fact is that yes, I feel like with tools such as spell check or auto-correct, we tend to be a bit more careless with our spelling and grammar. Many phrases we text to our friends are shortened down to only a few letters and immediately our brains already know what words those letters represent. I notice that these corrective tools tend to affect our grammar more than it does to our spelling. I remember being in my English honors class listening to my teacher talk about when to use "everyday" and "every day". I felt as if I should have already known that, but I only had a vague idea of the correct uses for each word. I do think that all of these silly spelling and grammar mistakes are caused by our relying on these correction tools and we should try to make an effort to use them less.
ReplyDeleteI too make those same silly mistakes, but in my opinion I'm glad that there is auto-correct. For so many words I misspell, it isn't because I don't know how to spell them or because I rely on the auto-correct to do it for me, but because I just get letters mixed up. Through my whole life it had always been that way. In my point of view auto-correct helps because most of the time I don't even noticed that I spelled a word wrong because it looks fine to me until the red squiggly line pops up. For those who have dyslexia (such as my dad), it's better for them to have auto-correct. I do see where Jacob and Tyra are coming from and you guys may be right, but all I know that auto-correct helps my dad and I very much and it may help many others too.
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