Officially passed my first year of university

The results are no longer provisional! I've passed!

You must be so relieved

Very! I still can't get used to not having uni work, though. Every time I open my laptop, I keep going onto journal websites to revise or look for assignment sources.

I can give you some of mine

I wouldn't want to deny you the pleasure of assignments!

Congratulations!

Guess that means you don't want to do any of my assignments either!?!

Not a chance! I'd rather sit here, feeling sorry for myself with my sore throat. I'll let you all get on with your assignments!

Well done Eleanor! I am really happy for you.

I'd share mine but, they're about ??? ?... well they are slightly out of date now.

Thank you!

Share away! No matter when it happened, it's something you worked hard for!

Yeah I did! But, computers, spell checks & formatting weren't our thing then i did it by pen, so, if you think I'm gonna dig it out from the back of " where ever it is" & type it.... you're mad!

Oh God, spell checkers were actually the bane of my existence this year! I wrote most of my stuff out by hand at uni, then transferred them onto computer. I remember in one assignment, my laptop kept autocorrecting 'Salmonella' to 'Salmon'!

thats why I hate it!

How can something be so useful, and yet so useless at the same time?

This about sums up my feelings:

It's not useful.  Learning how to spell is.

That's why I edit my posts constantly. The auto correct drives me mad!

I do think it's useful, as spelling is something some people find very difficult to grasp. Then you have certain disorders, such as dyslexia. Luckily, I've always found spelling easy to grasp, but I know people who simply cannot wrap their heads around it.

I am not talking about dyslexia.( That's completely different.) I am talking about young people who can't spell today without "spell check" because they have never learnt to spell at school or at home, in school spelling bees/competitions etc.

To be fair, not as much emphasis is placed on spelling/grammar/syntax at schools now. I do pride myself on my knowledge of those subjects, but that's because I write stories and took the time to teach myself. At primary school, we spent all of two lessons on it; those lessons consisted of us watching a caveman cartoon. In secondary school, it was assumed that we already knew the basics and that spell checkers would take care of the rest.

Personally, I think a reasonable knowledge of written language, at the very least, is useful for a person to have. If school doesn't teach a student enough about it, it's up to the student to research it in their own time. If I hadn't done so, I would have struggled in my English Language A Levels, much like some of my classmates did. I remember how proud I was when my teacher held me back after class to congratulate me, saying that she'd had to pass my coursework onto her sister (also a teacher) because she'd been unable to critique it.

At the same time, though, I am also a descriptivist, rather than a prescriptivist. On a side note, my laptop's spell checker is adamantly telling me that the word 'prescriptivist' is spelled incorrectly and must be changed.

Sorry for the essay! I get carried away too easily!

Many, many congratulations Eleanor!

Spellcheck - a)thinks we're all Americans and b)can be switched off!

Thankoo!

At least it gives us a giggle every now and then!

To be fair?...... are you saying its not the parents responsibility to teach their children alongside teachers? If a school doesn't teach spelling, it should be closed down & if parents don't read, write & do math with their kids.... they are poor parents!

Why do we need "spell check" if kids learn to spell?
As for "auto correct" ... what a waste of an app & someones time! You know someomeone (people) were paid good money to create that crap. It's annoying & wrong 99% of the time! I am constantly annoyed at the errors it produces both here & on my phone.

I've got to admit to being to being old-fashioned, which at my advanced age is hopefully understood if not forgiven.

I DO believe that schools should still encourage correct spelling and not rely on spell-check et al. Otherwise, in a few years, evry1 wil b ritin lyk this or werse.

Ditto basic maths, without relying on calculators. Every week, every week, I have to tell the 16 year-old Saturday girl at my local shop how to add up the £4 for my Lotto (which is held on one till) to the £8.10 for my paper bill (which is held on a separate till). Doh

How right you are Lydda!

But sorry to disagree with you. It isn't old fashioned to be able to write, spell & do math! It's about as important as knowing how to conduct yourself at a dining table or saying please & thank you.

LyndaW wrote:I've got to admit to being to being old-fashioned, which at my advanced age is hopefully understood if not forgiven.

I DO believe that schools should still encourage correct spelling and not rely on spell-check et al.  Otherwise, in a few years, evry1 wil b ritin lyk this or werse.

Ditto basic maths, without relying on calculators. Every week, every week, I have to tell the 16 year-old Saturday girl at my local shop how to add up the £4 for my Lotto (which is held on one till) to the £8.10 for my paper bill (which is held on a separate till).  Doh

Now you've sparked a flame!
Companies that spell their name phonetically instead of correctly....
Calculators in classrooms. I had only a pen & paper doing applied math!.....
I can't count the times I've added up my purchases to find the "shop assistant" can't without a till. (Register)....
& ask someone under 30 to actually count back change to you correctly.... Not a hope in hell!
I've met teachers of 25yrs? That can't spell. I'd love to return their corrected reports, correcting them! How the hell do they pass exams to teach?....

Language... "she goes", where did she go? No! She just goes...Oh! So she didn't actually go anywhere did she! She said!
Hmmmm, "It's like", well it's not "like" if is it completely different is it!

tracyp wrote:

How right you are Lydda!

But sorry to disagree with you. It isn't old fashioned to be able to write, spell & do math! It's about as important as knowing how to conduct yourself at a dining table or saying please & thank you.

LyndaW wrote:I've got to admit to being to being old-fashioned, which at my advanced age is hopefully understood if not forgiven.

I DO believe that schools should still encourage correct spelling and not rely on spell-check et al.  Otherwise, in a few years, evry1 wil b ritin lyk this or werse.

Ditto basic maths, without relying on calculators. Every week, every week, I have to tell the 16 year-old Saturday girl at my local shop how to add up the £4 for my Lotto (which is held on one till) to the £8.10 for my paper bill (which is held on a separate till).  Doh

Now you've sparked a flame!
Companies that spell their name phonetically instead of correctly....
Calculators in classrooms. I had only a pen & paper doing applied math!.....
I can't count the times I've added up my purchases to find the "shop assistant" can't without a till. (Register)....
& ask someone under 30 to actually count back change to you correctly.... Not a hope in hell!
I've met teachers of 25yrs? That can't spell. I'd love to return their corrected reports, correcting them! How the hell do they pass exams to teach?....

Language... "she goes", where did she go? No! She just goes...Oh! So she didn't actually go anywhere did she! She said!
Hmmmm, "It's like", well it's not "like" if is it completely different is it!

Apologies for hijacking your thread, Eleanor, but I agree entirely with Lydda and Tracy. I argue constantly with the spell check, especially if it wants me to be American. I don't use auto-correct, I see no point to it. I'm amazed that children are allowed to use devices like that in schools! Although language is always evolving, and new words come into (and out of) use all the time, there is little excuse for not spelling correctly, eventually no-one will be able to communicate if this basic skill is not taught.

tracyp wrote:To be fair?...... are you saying its not the parents responsibility to teach their children alongside teachers? If a school doesn't teach spelling, it should be closed down & if parents don't read, write & do math with their kids.... they are poor parents!

Why do we need "spell check" if kids learn to spell?
As for "auto correct" ... what a waste of an app & someones time! You know someomeone (people) were paid good money to create that crap.   It's annoying & wrong 99% of the time! I am constantly annoyed at the errors it produces both here & on my phone.

Of course it's the parents' responsibility as well. But not everybody places as much emphasis on literary rules as other people do. Not all parents have the ability to teach academically either. You also need to take into account a child's willingness to learn. Also, if the parents are to blame for not teaching their children the rules, isn't that generation also to blame?

As an example, myself and my brother were both encouraged to learn literary rules by our parents. Mum even had a big argument with my lower school because they didn't want to correct children's grammar. I took to learning it quite easily, but my brother didn't/couldn't. It wasn't due to a lack of encouragement from my parents; he just didn't get it. Individual differences play a huge role in a person's capacity to learn.

Why do we need spell check? I don't think we need it at all. But human error will occur, no matter how well educated you are. Spell check is something I've found useful in the past, as you very often miss errors as you proof-read your work. The brain can read a word the way it's supposed to be read, despite any spelling errors. There are advantages and disadvantages to everything.

tracyp wrote:


Now you've sparked a flame!
Companies that spell their name phonetically instead of correctly....
Calculators in classrooms. I had only a pen & paper doing applied math!.....
I can't count the times I've added up my purchases to find the "shop assistant" can't without a till. (Register)....
& ask someone under 30 to actually count back change to you correctly.... Not a hope in hell!
I've met teachers of 25yrs? That can't spell. I'd love to return their corrected reports, correcting them! How the hell do they pass exams to teach?....

Language... "she goes", where did she go? No! She just goes...Oh! So she didn't actually go anywhere did she! She said!
Hmmmm, "It's like", well it's not "like" if is it completely different is it!

I think that's the difference here - you're a prescriptivist, whereas I'm a descriptivist. Not that there's anything wrong with either of them; I think they're both two very different points of view on the same subject, but both are as valid as the other.

I have no problem at all with the way language evolves according to age, social class and situations. As far as I'm concerned, just because something was one way in the past, doesn't mean it has to remain that way. Maths is something I've always struggled with, but it was never because I didn't try hard enough. It just didn't click with me. Without a calculator, I most likely would have struggled even more. English, however, is one of my strengths. I'm lucky enough to be able to grasp it with ease, but there are other people who find that equally as difficult as I find maths. Even just using the word 'math(s)' instead of 'mathematics' is evidence of how language has evolved within the last fifty years. Years ago, the shortening of that word would have been met with scorn.

Lorraine wrote:

Apologies for hijacking your thread, Eleanor, but I agree entirely with Lydda and Tracy.  I argue constantly with the spell check, especially if it wants me to be American.  I don't use auto-correct, I see no point to it.  I'm amazed that children are allowed to use devices like that in schools!  Although language is always evolving, and new words come into (and out of) use all the time, there is little excuse for not spelling correctly, eventually no-one will be able to communicate if this basic skill is not taught.

That's okay - I love discussions like this!

I always prefer to have auto-correct switched off, as it becomes very difficult to keep track of the words it decides to change. Unfortunately, my laptop has other ideas and resets it every time I start up the laptop. Spell-check, though, is something I do find useful.

Code-switching is also something I'm wholly in favour of. When two teenagers converse with each other via some sort of electronic messaging system, they're likely to use 'chat-speak'. However, when they speak to a teacher at school, they will probably code-switch, even if it's only slightly. I do it all of the time. When I talk to, or email, a friend, my grammar gets lax and I don't focus too much on spelling errors. When I'm talking to, or emailing, a lecturer at university, I ensure that I remain grammatically correct.