Spelling

[Octavian]

What is it about spelling?
I can spot a single spelling mistake in a page of text. I do not look for it; the wrongly spelt word just seems to leap out at me. It is exactly the same when I read some of the posts on this forum.
But why?

Octavian

“Encase your majestic tree of manhood in the sublimely soft wondrous wet hallowed depths of my body,” she implored.
“Oh,” he replied, “you mean you wanna fuck!”

 

[Guest]

What is it about spelling?
I can spot a single spelling mistake in a page of text. I do not look for it; the wrongly spelt word just seems to leap out at me. It is exactly the same when I read some of the posts on this forum.
But why?

Octavian

“Encase your majestic tree of manhood in the sublimely soft wondrous wet hallowed depths of my body,” she implored.
“Oh,” he replied, “you mean you wanna fuck!”

You are anal, just like me.

(Seriously, I'm exactly the same. It's even worse when I notice one of my own. )

 

[china-doll]

Then I will advise you both to never read any of my psots.

 

[Guest]

Then I will advise you both to never read any of my psots.

Poss iff.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I can spot a single spelling mistake in a page of text. I do not look for it; the wrongly spelt word just seems to leap out at me. (...) But why?

Is it because you write your posts using Word before copy/pasting them onto here?

 

[china-doll]

Is it because you write your posts using Word before copy/pasting them onto here?

Not everyone has a big brain like you. Some of us need assistance.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Not everyone has a big brain like you. Some of us need assistance.

 

[Octavian]

Is it because you write your posts using Word before copy/pasting them onto here?

No, I don't need to; I can spell.

Maybe Tatelou is right. Perhaps I am anal!

Octavian

 

[Guest]

No, I don't need to; I can spell.

Maybe Tatelou is right. Perhaps I am anal!

Octavian

Same here, I never write my posts out in Word, then paste them here. For one thing, the sheer amount of posts I have made would make that rather laborious.

I'm always write.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

No, I don't need to; I can spell.

Really? How do you insert curved quotation marks on this interface?

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I'm always write.

My spell checker says that it should be, "I'm always rite"!

 

[Guest]

My spell checker says that it should be, "I'm always rite"!

That's cos you're Catholic, love.

 

[Liar]

Really? How do you insert curved quotation marks on this interface?

Like so:

””

Depends on your keyboard and charset. Shift+Ctrl+2 for me.

#L

 

[Octavian]

Really? How do you insert curved quotation marks on this interface?

Sorry, Lauren I did not pick up on this question.

The sig line

“Encase your majestic tree of manhood in the sublimely soft wondrous wet hallowed depths of my body,” she implored.
“Oh,” he replied, “you mean you wanna fuck!”

is copied from Word, but only to save me writing it out each time.

Octavian

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Like so:

””

Depends on your keyboard and charset. Shift+Ctrl+2 for me.

#L

Actually, on my keyboard it is Alt+0147 and Alt+0148.

You know, earlier today I had the idea of writing a poem (or even a short story) called ü. It made me think of your title thread.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

The sig line

“Encase your majestic tree of manhood in the sublimely soft wondrous wet hallowed depths of my body,” she implored.
“Oh,” he replied, “you mean you wanna fuck!”

is copied from Word, but only to save me writing it out each time.

Wouldn't it save even more time if you were to add it to your signature field, here?

 

[Octavian]

What...like this?

Wouldn't it save even more time if you were to add it to your signature field, here?

Thank you Lauren.
I always wondered how you do this.

Octavian

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

. . . Maybe Tatelou is right. Perhaps I am anal! . . .

I beleive it's more a function of blood type.

I for example, I am Type O.

 

[Octavian]

I beleive it's more a function of blood type.

I for example, I am Type O.

As in typographical?


Octavian

 

[cantdog]

I have wondered the same thing, Octavian, and my conclusion is much like Lou's. All spellers, people who can just spell, that's all, do it the way you describe: they spot it. The words are not "sounded out" or any of that malarkey. They have a face, and you recognize them by it. It is visual memory.

That looks right, but thet looks wrong. You know by the way they look, just as Lou does, or I do.

 

[SensualCealy]

Anyone that can spell, or spell big words without having a dictionary or thesaurus around I applaud you!

I am a horrible speller, so is my husband, worse than me he will admit. My son, well he must be the mailmans because he spells quite well and I even ask him for words so I dont have to look them up.
My daughter, she falls right from the tree. Her teacher however is also a Non-speller, and says some have it some dont, and not to push her. I hate to think she will go any further in life struggling like the two of us have had to do.

Any suggestions on how to improve her ablitities, as well as mine?
C

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I have wondered the same thing, Octavian, and my conclusion is much like Lou's. All spellers, people who can just spell, that's all, do it the way you describe: they spot it. The words are not "sounded out" or any of that malarkey. They have a face, and you recognize them by it. It is visual memory.

That looks right, but thet looks wrong. You know by the way they look, just as Lou does, or I do.

Yeah. I think that's it.

There's something complicated going on in reading. We don't read like we're taught to read. We seem to read in chunks and phrases, not phonetically, and not even word by word most of the time.

But that doesn't explain the results of that Princeton experiment where they worte wrdos out of odrer and pleope cluod sitll raed tehm as lnog as the frist and lsat lterts wree the smae.

I kind of think we recognize certain 'flags' in words, and context does the rest. If the flags are wrong, we see it. I'm much more likely to see the flags in a word like 'pepole' as being wrong than I am to catch an error in something like 'recieve'.

Speaking of spelling, the word that always kills me is "bureaucracy". I say this because I just went round and round with it again last night for 20 minutes. I always think it should be something like "beaurocracy", and so I can't even look the damned thing up in a dictionary. I have to look up synonyms for "chest", find "bureau", and then go from there.

 

[cantdog]

The lists of "Commonly misspelled words" have undergone a change since the advent of the spell checker.

Spell checkers used to be pretty simple, and on an XT machine (8088 chip) you could watch the one in WordStar work. It isolated each word in the text and compared it to a dictionary list of known words, which you could actually see grinding by on the screen. Which was cool. You got to supplement the dictionary, as you do now, so it would stop flagging your first name and your town. Or anything else you wanted to promote to real word status, like "fuck."

They are a little more sophisticated now, and they make a guess from context at things like "there" and "their," for instance. But words like "impeccable" or "necessary" are not on the lists anymore, since the spell checker breezes right through them.

It will make an impact on her papers and letters and whatnot if she concentrates on things that are left over after the spell checker finishes.

"loose" used for "lose"

The whole thing with the verbs "lie" and "lay"

making really sure you're using the right preposition.


And "its" and "it's"
And "there" and "their"
And "hour" and "our"
And "who's" and "whose"

and shit like that there. I think.

And I recommend writing the things out longhand if there is a recurring problem with place names or some real spelling word, because you need a hook to hang memory on. Having written it, only a few times, is how to burn it in to your visual memory. It works for me with foreign languages. Learn what they look like, spelled right.

All I can suggest, I'm afraid.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I think the key to good spelling comes from reading and knowing how the words are formed. Once you can manage that, you will hardly need a dictionary, be it for spelling or semantics.

 

[Guest]