My employer occasionally does work at a local condominium complex known as Anglesea. "Angle" and "sea" are two very easy to spell, first grade words. Yet put them together, and some people turn into drooling idiots. On an invoice for materials we purchased for recent work at Anglesea, the vendor spelled it "Anglse".
Here's another example. The Hooters restaurant right around the corner from where I work recently started serving Dos Equis beer. They announced this on their sign outside, spelling it "Dolsecis". Now, it's one thing if you don't know Spanish spelling. But there's just no excuse for not referring to the bottle if you don't know how to spell it! And just below the sign, there's a banner advertising Hooter Girl "calanders".
People like me who get annoyed with bad spelling are often met with hostility. We are called names such as "spelling nazi", and hear arguments like, "Who cares? You knew what I meant!" Well, I'll tell you why I care. I'm bitter.
When I was in school, I was required to learn to spell thirty words every week. If I didn't learn to spell those words, I would fail the spelling test. If I continually failed those tests, my grades would suffer. And so, because I cared about my grades, and much preferred honor roll field trips to being grounded, I learned those thirty words every week. When I had trouble with a word, I at least tried to make it look like I knew how to spell it, by referring to dictionaries, spell check, etc. (not during a spelling test, of course, but at those other times in school when you have to write stuff... i.e. all the time). If I didn't, it would make me look stupid.
And then I grew up, and I found out there were all kinds of people out there who were apparently not made to go through what I did. These people got to relax and not bother to learn how to spell anything, and the threats of grounding, revoked allowance, and just plain looking stupid, were not there for them. And they are smug and arrogant about it... spoiled little brats.
In this day of rapid written communication, i.e. text messaging and internet chatting, replacing spoken conversation, I'll concede that spelling may not be as important in these media, as long as your point gets across. But in e-mail, blogging, and other long-format written communications, there is no excuse for not taking the time to ensure that your spelling is correct.
Sure, there are people who just have a hard time learning things like spelling. I work with a couple of people who are lousy spellers, but the difference between them and the spoiled brats I describe above, is that they still care. These people recognize that spelling things incorrectly will make them look stupid, and so they make use of the tools at their disposal to compensate. They use spell check, and when they get really stumped they ask me. (Okay, so my boss argues with his spell check, but that's another story for another day.) I applaud these people for making every effort to use our written language effectively and correctly even though it is difficult for them.
But for those who refuse to make the effort, who make excuses or think it's just not important, I have no respect. It does make you look stupid. I call it elective stupidity, because it is a conscious choice you make to be too lazy to even try to look intelligent. Every good e-mail client, word processor, and web browser these days has a spell check built in. Use it. If yours doesn't, it's time to switch. And for God's sake, if you can't figure out how to spell something and spell check isn't any help, don't make up some stupid-looking phonetic spelling. Either find the word written somewhere, or ask!
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