darkwolf666
Well-known member
Don't tell Michael Gove!
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[Misc] How’s your spelling?
- Thread starter timbha
- Start date
Don't tell Michael Gove!
darkwolf666
Well-known member
This is me also... I was a proof-reader in print for a number of years, so always use full speak in text/WhatsApp messages - ironically, my Dad, who was also a proof reader for over 50 years texts like a teenager, emoji's an' all...
symyjym
Banned
Fair enough. I wasn't picking on your spelling I just find the use of z or s interesting. Some people say using z is an Americanisation but in fact it is how it was used in old English.
Nottseagull
Well-known member
When I took an AO Level with the Oxford & Cambridge Joint Board in 1975, they called it 'British Economic Organization'. And they should know!
making a mistake.....
Greg Bobkin
Silver Seagull
- May 22, 2012
- 14,852
Blue Valkyrie
Not seen such Bravery!
Orfull.
symyjym
Banned
When I was taught at comprehensive school, when it was first implemented, we were taught to use the s and it was implied that using z was an Americanism. I have since learned that this is not the case and that s was used in place of z when uneducated people got confused when taught English using z's and s's, and we dropped the z out the words for convenience and it became okay to do that.
Two Professors
Two Mad Professors
Same as me.My spellin is absolutely FUBAR.Probably why I voted BREXIT!
Icy Gull
Back on the rollercoaster
- Jul 5, 2003
- 72,015
Spelling mistakes shouldn't be aloud on here
I write and edit words for a living, but I still reach for the dictionary on several occasions every day to check spellings. But I HAVE to check them. I've seen so many poorly written sentences that I often cannot understand how some of them haven't been re-read, let alone proof-read.
As an aside – opening myself up to potential egg on face, here – I find it hilarious when a pedant comes along and corrects something, but ends up makes a mistake in their correction. Simple pleasures and all that...
I’d imagine letters and emails containing incorrect/bad spelling and grammar are written like that mainly because the people who write them don’t actually know what is correct and what isn’t. Nothing pacific but you defiantly shouldn’t make them escape goats.
The above is missing some punctuation too I think
Two Professors
Two Mad Professors
Hampden Park
Ex R.N.
- Oct 7, 2003
- 4,989
Yez
symyjym
Banned
So,do animals live in a Soo?
I forgive you for being pedantic.
Just to be clear:
On the whole the ‘z’ alternative has nothing whatever to do with America;
The ‘z’ is etymologically correct (where used properly);
The ‘s’ principally came into use by those believing it (apparently wrongly) to be correct by analogy with similar words that were current in French, when in fact the English use developed in parallel and came via Latin from the Greek, retaining the ‘z’ throughout (for example 'the realization' in English compares with ‘la réalisation’ in French) — in some quarters during the early days of English printing French [recently the language of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy] was regarded as posh;
The ‘s’ took hold in comparatively recent years because it was regarded as acceptable (because of the foregoing reason) and because of the hopelessness of training uneducated people correctly to grasp the correct occasion to deploy a ‘z’ or an ‘s’. Note Tillotson’s House Style (below) where they opine that use of ‘z’ is correct but they have decided to adopt the 's' because it gives rise to less trouble...
As the use of the ‘s’ caught on, dictionaries had to follow the trend, and are now quoting it as ‘correct’. It is arguable, but dictionaries do not necessarily promote correct usage, but follow prevailing practice (which is then taken as correct, creating a spiral of decline).
http://www.metadyne.co.uk/ize.html
A lot of American spelling and word usage is how English was 240 years ago when they got independence. English usage of English has moved on but American usage has less so.
Greg Bobkin
Silver Seagull
- May 22, 2012
- 14,852
I’d imagine letters and emails containing incorrect/bad spelling and grammar are written like that mainly because the people who write them don’t actually know what is correct and what isn’t. Nothing pacific but you defiantly shouldn’t make them escape goats.
The above is missing some punctuation too I think
I think you're giving people too much credit. In many cases, it's because people are either too lazy to re-read something, rather than being able to construct a simple sentence. The fact is they don't really care! The situation is getting worse, too – I've been in this game nearly 20 years and in the past two months I've had to edit the worst copy I've seen in that time. It's truely dreadful. Here's a snapshot:
'Obviously having a direct sponsorship arrangement meant that John was very well connected with the senior management, who constantly scrutinised all costs on the business, keen to help John along, and knowing he was based vert close to Manchester a very senior figure pointed out that at there Trafford Park tanker operation the company was paying a very hefty amount in overtime to drivers on the tanker fleet to clean there trucks and thought it might save money by contracting the service and invited John to have a look and put a price in and on John admission he never ever seen a truck close up never mind how to price for cleaning one.'
That's one sentence
Or how about: 'In 2017 John and his wife Anne passed the reigns of company over to their highly experienced and forward thinking daughter Laura after investing her own money into the venture one of the first of many things the experienced marketeer embarked upon was a succession of market research surveys that aimed at both the drivers, account owners and operators to what they wanted from a the very much at the top of the findings where that they want a prompt service that will allow them to carry on with their journey as quickly as possible, another interesting fact that many would travel up to 3 miles from the current site to get their truck washed.'
Icy Gull
Back on the rollercoaster
- Jul 5, 2003
- 72,015
I think you're giving people too much credit. In many cases, it's because people are either too lazy to re-read something, rather than being able to construct a simple sentence. The fact is they don't really care! The situation is getting worse, too – I've been in this game nearly 20 years and in the past two months I've had to edit the worst copy I've seen in that time. It's truely dreadful. Here's a snapshot:
'Obviously having a direct sponsorship arrangement meant that John was very well connected with the senior management, who constantly scrutinised all costs on the business, keen to help John along, and knowing he was based vert close to Manchester a very senior figure pointed out that at there Trafford Park tanker operation the company was paying a very hefty amount in overtime to drivers on the tanker fleet to clean there trucks and thought it might save money by contracting the service and invited John to have a look and put a price in and on John admission he never ever seen a truck close up never mind how to price for cleaning one.'
That's one sentence
Or how about: 'In 2017 John and his wife Anne passed the reigns of company over to their highly experienced and forward thinking daughter Laura after investing her own money into the venture one of the first of many things the experienced marketeer embarked upon was a succession of market research surveys that aimed at both the drivers, account owners and operators to what they wanted from a the very much at the top of the findings where that they want a prompt service that will allow them to carry on with their journey as quickly as possible, another interesting fact that many would travel up to 3 miles from the current site to get their truck washed.'
Lol and I thought my sentence was too long.
Not convinced you are right though. NOBODY would think either of those read easily or well would they? Unless, of course, they were fecking terrible at written English. Which, clearly, they are!!
Greg Bobkin
Silver Seagull
- May 22, 2012
- 14,852
Well they arrived on my desk like that, so presumably they'd been signed off/approved by someone? I've read enough to honestly believe that people would read that and not batter an eyelid, but in other cases, it probably wouldn't get re-read.
And that's my point – the general standard of writing has suffered because people got lazy. If the writer went back over those words, they would hopefully realise that it's absolute gibberish. But they didn't bother. I'm not quite old enough to remember the days of submitting copy on typewriters, but I remember an old senior sub telling me that because you only really get one shot, you have to think about the sentence first, then type it. Not like today, when people can rattle out a lot of rubbish and then go back over it and correct all the mistakes.
Shropshire Seagull
Well-known member
Use a computer, it has a spell checker so you can not make any smelling mistakes.