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Subject:Re: Spelling survey From:Nancy Hayes <nancyh -at- PMAFIRE -dot- INEL -dot- GOV> Date:Thu, 18 Aug 1994 20:21:20 GMT
Hi. Here's your survey:
1. Professional technical communicators should know how to spell.
Or at least know how to use a dictionary.
2. Spelling is less important now than it used to be; meaning
is carried by the sound of words, even when they are read,
rather than by their visual form (i.e., the letters that evoke
them on page or screen).
Wrong. Spelling is very important, especially in professional communications.
Nothing looks worse than writing a document about how to write and misspelling
the words.
3. It is important to learn spelling and etymology because the
visual form of words contains important information about
the formation of the culture now using the words.
Agree, somewhat. I tend to prefer the British spelling for some of the words
rather than the American. My teachers didn't always agree with me, but c'est
la vie.
4. Noah Webster and George Bernard Shaw were right: we oughta
simplify spelling so there aren't so many rules and excep-
tions.
Good luck. I agree w/ the previous poster (sorry I forgot your name) who said
that this sets a specific pronunciation on the words. How does phonetic
spelling (which this would be) account for a Southern US, Yorkshire,
Victorian, or Brooklynese.
5. The following passage of text seems OK to me:
Benny's grammer teacher tolled a funny storey about a man
who is the soul owner of a shoe company. He had invested
his principle in a process to embed springs in the shoe
soles, but found the rate of return on his principal to
be less elastic than the souls. (Inspired by an article in
the business section of today's paper.)
No way in hell.
I agree that students shouldn't have to worry about spelling in the =rough=
draft stage, but they definately need to worry about spelling and grammar
before the paper gets a grade.
Nancy Hayes (nancyh -at- pmafire -dot- inel -dot- gov) Standard disclaimer.
--
--N. L. Hayes DISCLAIMER: Personal opinion, only.
nancyh -at- pmafire -dot- inel -dot- gov Does not represent company policy.
