Sit a Spell

Have a seat and let's talk about spelling for a few minutes. Every once in a while, I hear people talking about spelling, and I have to eavesdrop because spelling was my favorite subject in elementary school. I liked it because it came naturally to me. I didn't even study, but I almost always got 100% on my tests. This makes no sense at all because I have always had a terrible memory.

In many countries, spelling isn't even a subject in school once children have learned to write because if they can say a word, they can spell it. Sometimes I wish it was also that way with English, but I like how my language grows like a tree from roots from all over the world.

I have heard some people who struggle with spelling talk about how much it bothers them. Sometimes they feel like people assume they are unintelligent or that it tarnishes their credibility. To avoid these feelings, some of them stay mostly quiet online.

I have seen people talking online about whether or not correct spelling matters. There are usually people with opinions on both sides. There are prescriptivists that say grammar and spelling should be protected and descriptivists that are so bitter against the prescriptivists that they call them "the grammar (or spelling) police" with a disgust that is almost audible from the screen.

I have also seen people's opinions publicly discounted because of bad grammar or spelling and wonder if this is part of why so many people have negative feelings about writing mistakes being pointed out. In addition to that, most people don't enjoy being corrected.

I have also witnessed online conversations among parents who homeschool and what their thoughts are about spelling. Some of them say they don't teach spelling at all because they think it squashes creativity in writing, and they believe the spelling will come on its own later.

So, what is the answer to this controversial question: Does correct spelling matter? The answer is not so easy to find because it depends on so many things. For example, if my best friend was a terrible speller, would I want her to feel uncomfortable every time she wanted to talk to me through texts? Absolutely not! Talk to me, Girl! Your spelling is so cute, and I love you! If a man enjoyed writing but wasn't good at spelling, should he give it up? No, I think that would be a very sad reason to give up something he loves!

Yet I still think that spelling matters. I want to be an editor after all. If no one cared about spelling, think how difficult it would be for anyone to learn English. How would people learning this language be able to tell the difference between new words and the same word spelled differently? If no one cared about spelling, communication would be negatively impacted. In addition, I think there is no excuse for spelling mistakes in educational text. When I find typos in these places, I often notify them because I feel it is my duty. I even found a typo on Grammarly, so I sent them an email. They fixed it and that feels good!

In her book "A World Without Whom," Emmy Favilla said, "Sometimes there's no such thing as correct spelling" (p. 11). She emphasized that language is alive, which means it changes.

I think this is true also. Favilla says "amirite" a few times in her book, and I would not say it is misspelled because it is a matter of style and tone. "Am I right?" doesn't read the same as "amirite," and although I probably won't ever use that spelling, I would never say someone who does so is wrong. The dictionary people must agree because it's in there.

After all of this self-analysis, I realize I don't really know if I am a prescriptivist or a descriptivist when it comes to spelling. The more I think about that, the more I see that the fact that I don't know is actually a good thing.

Thanks for sitting with me!