Spelling Problems: The Ability to Spell,
May Still Serve You Well

These memorable words were sung by Humphrey Bogart in the 1942 movie classic, Casablanca. In our technological age they continue to ring as true as they did in 1942.

The ability to spell correctly is one of the fundamentals that will never cease to be important. The advantage of a good spelling ability in the work place was indicated by a survey of 1500 employers and employees, recently conducted by Office Angels, UK’s leading secretarial and office support recruitment consultancy. This survey revealed that a full 84% of employers believe that the value of even the most excellent work can be debased by sloppy spelling and grammar. It further showed that 77% of employers regard a high degree of literacy as an essential skill, and that employees who demonstrate attention to detail are more likely to be on the fast track to promotion. Work peppered with sloppy spelling and grammar left 20% of employers fuming, while 53% perceived the employee as lazy and unprofessional. The same percentage of managers — 53% — admitted that they would not read any further once they had spotted literacy errors.

The same survey also found that 49% of employees do not check through their work, but only rely on computer spell check programs to spot and amend mistakes. However, these spell check programs are not flawless. The following problems were divulged by the survey:

• Confusion over the application of similar words, such as "effect" and "affect."
• Misuse of apostrophes, for example its and it's.
• Wrong application of endings for plurals.
• Failure to capitalize names and places appropriately.

The inability of spell check programs to replace the human mind is further illustrated by the poem Ode to my spell checker (author unknown):

Eye halve a spelling checker
It came with my pea sea.
It plainly marks four my revue miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a quay and type a word and weight for it to say
Weather eye yam wrong oar write.
It shows me strait a weigh as soon as a mist ache is maid.
It nose bee fore two long and eye can put the error rite.
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it,
I am shore your pleased to no.
Its letter perfect awl the way.
My checker told me sew.

The putative technological “backup” for a poor spelling ability is therefore not nearly as reliable as many people seem to think. The only way out of the dilemma seems to be another fundamental thing — parents and teachers should again actively work on teaching children to spell properly. Until some decades ago, both parents and teachers took pride in teaching children to spell.

Tragically, the ability to teach good spelling has become — along with many other things — a lost art.