John has a post about grammar and spelling that hits home. I have never been a great speller. Technologies like Word’s auto-correction feature and ieSpell’s web form spell checker have made things much better. I still put in “you” when I should have “your” because I think much quicker than I type and that extra letter never makes it from my brain to my fingers.
But the technology cannot help those who do not use it. I still get emails, discussion posts and even project papers with not only grammar errors but also spelling errors. I have banned the “IM” email messages. All my syllabi explain that email is to be composed in a professional manner. Some day my students will be teachers and they will send email to parents. Those parents will feel better knowing their children are being educated by teachers using proper grammar and spelling.
One of my own kids has a teacher that is continually sending home “update” sheets with misspelled words. I know this teacher well and am comfortable with every teaching practiced used in the class. I just have a hard time getting past those spelling errors. I could live with some grammar errors. Being in a room where the average age is seven can affect one’s grammar. I am only asking that all the messages sent home to the parents get a second look, followed by F7. That’s a keyboard shortcut in Word everyone should memorize.
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