Spelling - awful.

Add, belatedly, I have alway thought you write well and wisely, Ceili.

Thank you, Ceili. Itinerary is something I always have to look up too, I never remember from one time to the next. Conscience used to be another one, but then I broke it down to con + science and voila it stuck in my brain.

minuscule point but

how do you know

good point.

Thanks osso, right back at you.

Glad you enjoyed the article...I did, too (originally sent it to my brother who I think is pretty smart, but admits his shortcomings in spelling).

I'd rather be a math whiz. Make a spelling mistake and people still know what you mean. Make a math mistake and.....oops. I've read that Einstein was a rotten speller and hated Scrabble LOL.

Make a spelling mistake, and everyone knows. Math error? Who can tell?

Mr.Irish...when he opens the checkbook

Broke the same word down into con + science.

The IRS is pretty good at spotting math errors.

Bet they can't spell worth beans, though LOL.

Instead of writing try typing. type slowly and get it right each time gradually increase your speed. you are trying to correct an ingrained muscle movement

I have become a better speller as I age. You won't hear any of the stories I have about standing by my mother's sewing machine on Thursday night mouthing out the correct letters for the next day's eighth grade spelling test. Okay. just this one:

"Say the word. Spell it. Say the word."
I heard that over and over.
"AMBITION"
"Ambition. A-M-B......I..TI..ON"
....
"Well?"
"What?"
"You didn't say the word, spell it and say the word."
"Oh."
....
"Well?"
"Ambition. A-M-B-I-TI-ON. Ambition."
"Good. 'Appointment' "
She would sew and I would spell. There were twelve words on Sister Bridget's list every Friday. My mother made the rule up that I had to be able to spell all twelve in a row before going to bed. If I missed a letter in word six,say appreciation, I had to start all over again at AMBITION. Sometimes it took until after 11:00 at night, but I did learn them.

Then came the doom moment. In a well-meaning gesture of support, my mother once confided in me that she could never remember how to spell the word CARROT. "Was it two Rs or two Os?" she said."After all, it is a ROOT."
Since that long ago Thursday, I have never been able to spell the word CARROT.

Joe(or is it CAROOT?)Nation

If it's any help, I used to be a perfect speller, and I ma getting worse and worse.

I would say that I've mad an official survey of the people whom I know that are intelligent and creative. Their spelling is worse than the average. The more creative I find the person to be, the worse spellers they are. However, I can't say they try to be better spellers.

On a slightly different note, in the last 10 yrs of my being online (I'm 59), I've noticed my own spelling deterioration and dyslexia, particularly with transposing letters. However if asked how to spell any word, I'd score about 98% correct. It's typing where I fall down.

Perhaps your problem is that you're not as concerned as you think about the correctness of spelling. Or it's an unconscious block ..due to a rebellion of some sort?

(Note: in writing this note, I made 7 corrections by eye and one with help of spell check)

Thomas is the one who came up with a phrase for messing up here and hear - which I still do even though I know the words very well. Alas, I don't remember the phrase.

The most common (and annoying) misspells (wait..how is misspell spelled again?):

Spelling and Root Words

Definitely (always remember define is the root not defane)
Separate (not seperate...always remember par is the root)
Desperate

dissect (think dis+section)

Occasion (Beats me! This one I had to memorize again and again
Occurrence
Occurred
Proceed
Receipt (think of reception or receive
Receive (i before e except after c)

Here's Wikipedia list of common misspellings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_misspellings


My Personal List of Common Typos (that look like spelling errors)

the most often spelled teh or hte -- perhaps the keys are not in the most convenient spots for the hands to find them easily.
perhaps perahps
list typically I spell it lsit

I lack sufficient information to address the psychology of it,
but I urge u to promote fonetic spelling.

The Spanish have NO PROBLEM with spelling
because it is as natural as breathing; u spell it as u pronounce it orally.

Thay shoud not have a monopoly on sound logic.





David

U don 't need a frase: hear meaning listen, Osso.





David

I suspect that phonetic spelling can not work and that comparing English to Spanish (people misspell is Spanish . . . my daughter is a Spanish teacher who also worked in publishing Spanish language books) is futile.

While English is a not a creole, historically, it has roots in both Germanic and Romance languages while Spanish is derived wholly from Latin.