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Sarah Riegel
Professor Jan Rieman
UWRT 1103
September 24, 2014
(9) In an Autocorrect Generation, Does Spelling Still Matter?
Comments Section:
Dr. Jeffrey Halls In an academic setting, we expect students to abide by normal grammatical
conventions. Why? Because this is what is needed for them to stand a chance in the professional
world. In addition, clear understanding of writing conventions allows students to be more
critically literate citizens. I try to impress upon my students the fact that effective communication
is the primary function of writing. I recently assigned a prompt to encourage students to think
about writing as a life-long practice because of this function.
@Spellingizlyfe look, theres a time and a place for paying attention to spelling. on the internet
it doeznt matter how you spell as long as u make sense.
Sydney Australia - @Spellingizlyfe, I get what youre saying. It really does come down
to communication, as Kimble explains. I personally dont like using this type of spelling
even in text messages. My friends make fun of me for typing out favorite when I could
just say fav, but I think its hard enough to understand the true meaning and
connotation of texts without so many confusing abbreviations.
Papa John Speaking as someone in business, I can attest to the importance of spelling
accuracy. If you have many spelling typos on a job application, which is often hand-written,
whoever is reviewing it will be less likely to hire you. As judgmental as it may seem, he or she
will probably assume you are less educated or incompetent.

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Isaac Letterman Most teachers expect us to submit papers electronically. I really appreciate
that, what with the software for spell checking. You can call me lazy, but it alleviates some
pressure to know my software will fix some typos for me. Plus, its easier to look up correct
spellings using this. It makes life easier without sacrificing the efficacy of your communication.
Shelley Isaac, I disagree with your last statement. I think spell check poses a threat to
your communication whenever you do not write electronically.
Luvrboi Something that Horobin mentioned is that as a word is misspelled multiple times
online, that spelling becomes more acceptable. I would like to suggest then that these are no
longer misspellings, but approved abbreviations and new words. For instance, while it is
acceptable to type hav, people would have trouble understanding hve. Why? Because hav
is a new approved abbreviation while hve is not. Each social media website is like its own
dialect of the English language, a dialect that introduces the @ and # signs with altered
denotations than originally intended.
Samson I completely agree. Take, for example, this text message I received:
Omg, Idk, and lol are all widelyaccepted abbreviations, and doe is a new
word altogether meaning though or bro (an
abbreviation itself) depending on the context. These types of phrases even have their own
dictionary now called Urban Dictionary. Also notice the incorrect punctuation; yet, this
persons meaning remains clear.
Shakespeares Great As a lover of the English language, it makes me sad that the majority of
new words and phrases being created are condensing and limiting our language, thereby limiting
our thinking capacity. This is exactly what Orwell warned us about with Newspeak in 1984.

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Reflective Afterthought
After reading a few of the comments following the article, I decided a document
formatted as a comments page would be most effective for expressing the different opinions I
have concerning spelling for the different contexts I write in. This piece was very much
experimental for me. I will admit that I was unable to contribute authenticity to all of my fake
commenters. I tried to use more informal language to fit the conventions of my genre. This also
served my purpose of being relatable to an audience of typical internet readers, who often skim
the comments section. This necessitates less complex language. With the commenter
@Spellingizlyfe, I over-exaggerated his misspellings and abbreviations to convey indirectly my
general dislike of the practice. I also provided hyperlinks and a picture to provide outside
resources and examples for my audience, suggest that these commenters were more familiar with
electronic technologies, and encourage more critical thinking from readers as they engage with
the text.