Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Writing for Grammar: What's the Big Deal About Spelling?

Why is everyone so uptight about proper spelling? It isn't really required for understanding.

Consider this paragraph:

Aoccdrnig to a rseearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Most people seem to be able to get most of the meaning all right without proper spelling. It's only in specific cases that spelling changes meaning. So why spell properly?

It's for credibility. If your writing is full of misspelled words, people will think you are an idiot, and they certainly won't pay much attention to your writing.

Next time we will look at some ways to make sure our writing is spelled correctly.

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