After watching the PBS origins lectures on Human DNA and what one human cell does surrounding the DNA chain (Over 20 chemicals? have been identified that control what the one human cell does with it's DNA chain to make the cell divide and copy its DNA chain, the human brain's capabilities are incredable. There is also a suggestion that by the use of Quantum Mechanics Entanglement theory that everything in the universe has like particles that constantly transfer all the actions of the particles in your body to another dimension where the opposite particles exist. In short this means you should have a nice speech prepared when you meet the Big Guy in the Sky.
JJK

Oui c'est vrai


-Francois

"Comprehension is more important than spelling for example “Empathy” many on this forum know how to spell it but have no clue what it “means”"

Amen.

Paul.

I know what it means.

It is a 2nd-person singular pronoun generally reserved for objects.

Spelling based on location

Favorite - Favourite

Color - Colour

potato-tomato

Dave T2

... Well, pronunciation is a whole other boil to lance !

geoff

The simple fact of the matter is that clarity and comprehension will sometimes depend on the accuracy of the language being used, whether it's in the spelling, punctuation or grammar.

Lynn Truss's excellent book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" is a very readable and often amusing summary of how language can be used and abused and is well worth getting hold of. Gowers' "Complete Plain Words," although now rather dated, is also worth having, even if only as a reference, while Fowler's "Modern English Usage" is an invaluable aid.

Isn't poor spelling a lazy exccuse by the writer in that it places the onus on the reader to try to interpret what the writer is attempting to say (and that interpretation may well be wrong)? It can also be irritating to the reader who may find it distracting and not be affected in quite the way the writer wishes.

I've always thought that the use of words is an art form, just as video, painting, music etc are. It needs to be done properly and with care if the reader, listener or viewer are to respond as you wish to the message being sent.

I doubt if many people would be happy were the rules of video (e.g. regarding continuity, camera angles, direction of movement etc.) to be broken on a regular basis unless done for a specific effect (not 'affect') and I think this point is just the same as that being made about correct spelling and grammar.

Richard

A very thoughtful, sophisticated response.

Then you wrote "Isn't poor spelling a lazy exccuse..." Ahem. I'm assuming this was a slip of the finger.

As an aside, I use Firefox as my browser, and whatever I type gets looked over by the built-in spell-checker. Perhaps other browsers don't have that feature.

Anyway, I do get annoyed by people on other boards when their writing is full of grammatical and spelling goofs. It's a shame, because they obviously want to share something, but I have a built-in bias that if they don't care enough to write properly, then perhaps their opinions shouldn't carry as much weight as others.

Suppose one side argues that we should conserve resources by raising fuel mileage standards. Then someone on the other side writes, "I dont want no dam Washington gazoline mialage limets." An exaggeration, of course (and frankly I'm on the latter side on this one) but which of the two will you tend to trust?

Using the proper words is so very subjective after you realize that some super rich dude sitting in a chair decides that he will create a new word for the English language and has the power to jam it down our throats, especially the words spelled the same with 4 different meanings.Give me a break.
JJK

Lasagne

"As an aside, I use Firefox as my browser, and whatever I type gets looked over by the built-in spell-checker. Perhaps other browsers don't have that feature."

Yep - I use Chrome just now, and no matter how many times I tell it different, it still tries to 'correct' my correct English spelling to Yankglish !

[i]"Anyway, I do get annoyed by people on other boards when their writing is full of grammatical and spelling goofs"[/i}

Yeah, it annoys me alot !

geoff

geoff

Words are not invented by super rich dudes. Perhaps you're thinking of phrases such as "credit-default swaps", and these are not meant to be understood. New words are the work of the common herd, and whether or not they get into a dictionary depends on under-paid academics sifting through the rubbish.

I was watching a movie the other day (Year One) and the expression "regime change" cropped up. I thought George W or one of his sidekicks invented that one.

Then there is "ethnic cleansing".

I also like the understatement in "Cool Hand Luke" when Paul Newman is recaptured after being warned by the brutal prison chief of the consequences of trying to escape, "Now what we have here is a failure to communicate!"

Ok let me get this straight Edison, Einstein, daVinci were just simply lazy and didn’t pay attention.
http://www.dyslexia.com/leonardo.htm

some people think in pictures not in words, a problem can arises when translating the mental images into words. A person with this style of thinking can get disorientated as there are many words or words that sound the same to describe the image. Coupled with this is that a person who thinks in pictures often visualize in time and space which is what is called 3D, to translate this back into a 2D image made up of characters can be a challenge
to illustrate take the word CAT. People who think in pictures see a cat which is in 3D because that’s the way it really is but in translating this image to a 2D form made up of characters the person can get disoriented, he is not stupid or lazy as he simply gets disorientated the characters can also get disorientated and come out as TAC. Therefore a person who thinks in pictures has to practice longer and harder than other students to get it right.

I see rats that come to be a star

@Grazie
Men are led on a lead made of lead.

Thank you riredale and my apologies for the typo - it was down to finger trouble and the absence of a spell checker, I'm afraid!

Rory mentions several brilliant people who suffered from dyslexia and there are, of course, many more, including such as Thomas Edison, Agatha Christie, Richard Branson and numerous actors. Almost inevitably they all faced spelling difficulties (in fact, many sufferers have trained themselves to overcome the problem although this is not always achievable) but I fail to see the logic of suggesting that, because they managed to get their "messages" across, the rest of us should all be able to ignore the importance of spelling. Were that argument to be followed to its logical conclusion in other walks of life we should be facing anarchy!

The question is: how important is it to you for the reader to properly understand what you are trying to say? For the sake of clarity, the message needs to be expressed as clearly as possible with this becoming easier when due regard is paid to the commonly understood rules of spelling, grammar and punctuation (in just the same way that it is, as I suggested above, important to follow a set of rules when filming and editing).

Richard