Spelling is Still Important

Tweet My grandmother was a proofreader for the local newspaper. When she retired, she would get really annoyed when she found mistakes in the paper.

I didn't understand why all these mistakes bothered her so much. Then I became a math teacher. You would think spelling wouldn't matter in math, but after 32 years of seeing the same mistakes over and over, I know why she got so aggravated.

Did you know?
Five nickles make twenty-five cents.
Eight times five is fourty.
Protractors are used to measure angels.
Freshman usually take a course called Algerbra.
The communitive property means 2+3 = 3+2.
An eclipse has an oval shape.
Lines in the same plane that never intersect are parralel.

These are just a few of the many mistakes I encountered. I thought when I retired I wouldn't have to put up with spelling errors any more. Then I started reading posts on blogs, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Now I know that I make errors in spelling now and then, but I do try. It seems many don't. I also know that with the 140 character limit on Twitter, some spelling shortcuts are necessary. I don't think the same should be true of blogs. Often, the misspellings make the material difficult to read. The mistakes that annoy me most are:
there, their, they're
too, to, two
accept, except
affect, effect
threw, through
principal, principle
hear, here

So my advice today is to try to spell correctly and to use the correct spelling of words that sound alike. Remember, written language is for communication. If incorrect usage and misspellings make a piece difficult to read, then good communication is not happening.