justplainbil

Just Plain Bill

Spelling

Readers of my blog may notice a tendency of mine to focus on misspelled words. As a horrible speller growing up (and a trait that continues into my many years of adulthood), it’s interesting to me that words that are still spelled incorrectly in this day and age of Spellcheck. I continue to be amazed that everyone doesn’t use it.

The other day, I noticed a warning painted on a sign on a path at the community college where I teach. It read:

No smoking pass this point

Hmmm. Not sure how I was to comply - if I was a smoker. Of course I know what was meant by that warning, it’s just that, once again, I’m surprised by our failure as educators to teach correct spelling. (And I know for sure there was no “spell check” on the painter’s brush or stencil used for the sign.)

It’s since been painted over, with the original word insisting to exist.

As I mentioned, I don’t consider myself a good speller. So why is it that I keep noticing – and responding to – spelling errors all over the place?

When I had to take “bonehead” English in college after failing the upper division writing test, my instructor took a radical approach to teaching writing, professing the best way to learn how to write is to… write. He provided no instruction at all.

He assigned seven, 500-word essays each week and also required us to correct a classmate’s 3,500 words – using a red pen! I got tired of a mess of red ink and decided to learn how to spell words I usually used, which has stood me well since college. (Our class, with no instruction at all, had the highest passing percentage of all sections on the retest at the end of the course.)

I’ve used this approach to the courses I teach on writing, and I find it really works quite well.