Maybe that was his SAT score. 
IMHO chronically poor spellers and poor typists often simply lack sufficient attention to detail. They don’t recheck what they write or type. Or they are lacking in education about homophones and spelling rules.
That said, it’s next to impossible to find your own errors 100% of the time.
My mom was far from stupid, but she had a real problem with spelling. She was not dyslexic. However, she checked her writing carefully if it was something important, something where she needed to make a good impression. She would look up the correct spelling if necessary. A letter to her mother, not so much, as her mother didn’t spell all that well either, so it would never be noticed.
If I were reading something like a job application or resume and I found even one spelling error, I’d file that one in the circular file.
Spelling is parlor trick, which has no direct relationship with intelligence. It may reflect in IQ tests when a problem is due to recognition or recollection of patterns, but that by no means indicates by itself a lack of innate intelligence.
I’ve met people who lack any semblance of high intelligence who were excellent spellers. When evaluating this alleged relationship between intelligence and spelling consider the inverse as well.
I really can’t believe the furor this column caused, and the level of nitpicking.
BWA-HA-HA… just kidding, of course it would!
I have always been an excellent speller, and I almost always use a spell-checker, but there are lots of ways to screw up even with a spell-checker.
First of all, spell-checkers are not looking at the semantics, just at most the local syntax, and typically just a table of statistically probable errors. They have no way of telling what you meant to type: they’re just guessing at what you might have meant to type. There are many, many ways for them to screw up, and if you’re not very vigilant you might very well miss one of the more obvious ways in which they do when you watch them make changes and do a final proofing.
Second, the difference between writing an email message and writing a dissertation is that the former is a (typically) hastily-written and (typically) ephemeral document, whereas a dissertation is a formal, permanent document that may even be published – as is. It is likely to be read, even if not published, by a number of highly-intelligent and well-educated people, and because of its importance one is likely to obsess over minute details. Not so in an email message or facebook post [I really couldn’t give a rat’s patoot about the correct capitalization of “words” like “facebook”]
Finally, there are many, many errors in word choice that are perfectly correct in terms of superficial, context-independent form – homonyms are a good example, and in a long post it’s not all that difficult to miss one of these; again, how much obsessing is your average email message worth? There are also many, many domains in which there is specialist jargon, acronyms and initialisms, and even legitimate words (like “initialisms”) that a spell-checker will flag as errors (as it just did for “initialisms”; “initialism” is in Merriam-Webster online (search for it), and its first known use was in 1899, so I feel free to use it. For that matter, this spell-checker is complaining about “online,” which is also in Merriam-Webster online and has been used since 1950. I think that we can all agree that 112 years is enough time for a commonly-used term to be accepted as a legitimate English word, if 61 years are not.
Since a lot of my professional communication deals with technical and other jargon that is not in common usage, between those and the words that are in common usage that a spell-checker just can’t handle for one of the reasons mentioned above – and because I am, although a careful human, still just human – real or apparent spelling and orthographical [flagged by this spell-checker, even though shown as an acceptable variant of “orthographic” by Merriam-Webster online] errors slip through.
Anyone who pooh-poohs the notion that bad keyboards, bad wrists and hands, tiredness, or any of a huge number of other possible causes can result in poor spelling has a big ol’ stick up his/her ass. I have arthritis in my hands and carpal tunnel syndrome, and there are times when it’s just not worth the (quite literal) pain to correct minor errors, even if I do notice them. Life is just too short to worry about what some jerk who reads my facebook postings (if I actually did any) thinks. I’ll reserve my concern for situations that have some real significance. If I’m writing a cover letter to a prospective employer, that gets my full attention and my best spelling; if it’s a post in a trivial, ephemeral context like assbook, not so much.
Note that aside from words I’ve specifically highlighted (and “BWA-HA-HA”, “patoot”, and “ol’”), there are no other misspellings flagged by this spell-checker; and there are half a dozen incorrectly-flagged misspellings and another half-dozen intentional misspellings. I’ve already spent more time on this than I can really justify; I’m not about to proofread it as though it’s going to get me a Ph.D., so if there are any remaining spelling or orthographical errors – well, that’s just gonna have to be the way it is. [“gonna” is OK, but “patoot” and “online” aren’t? What kind of spell-checker is this?]
Another half-hour wasted…
The concept of a reified general quantifiable measure of intelligence has passed in my opinion. There are different fields in which people can excel. Some are polymaths. Others are not (some are hedgehogs and others are foxes, in fact). Some may be particularly adept at a particular skill, but only ever in certain situations. Perhaps an individual was in a rush and didn’t bother to edit their posts… Perhaps they were inebriated. Just because they consistently show a deficiency in spelling doesn’t mean they can’t be of use in some other fashion.
Oh, not to mention that prescriptivists are annoying: Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language - YouTube
Other factors come into play. I, for example, read nearly as much non-US English as US, and consequently have great difficulties remembering whether it’s supposed to be “traveler” or “traveller”.
I recently bought an iPhone, and I’ve discovered that (a) the small keyboard makes typos inevitable, and (b) correcting them is painfully tedious. Also, © creating an upper-case I is tedious and time-consuming (it’s not as simple as holding down the SHIFT-key and typing i). I’m normally a fast typist, and I can see myself taking shortcuts if I used the iPhone much. Using lower-case i instead of I is one of the things I would probably be doing myself.
IMO Cecil’s column really discusses only certain kinds of spelling errors, so I think it’s helpful if we rule out others from this discussion:
[ul]
[li]Typos - Cecil himself seems to shrug these off, and I agree–how many of us have written “teh” for “the” on more than one occasion. However if the error is chronic, one can rightly suspect it’s not a typo.[/li][li]Uncommon words - Cecil is clearly not talking about misspelling words like “reified”, “orthographic”, and “admonition” (all correctly spelled in this thread). I don’t think you can tell anything about one’s intelligence from misspelling words like this; even if it’s a chronic misspelling, all it indicates is the writer hasn’t seen the word often enough to assimilate its orthography, which in the list of personal shortcomings is relatively minor.[/li][li]Spell Checking - At best (and I’m not even sure about that) one could claim a writer who doesn’t use automated spell check is foolish, but smart people often do foolish things–that doesn’t mean their stupid.[/li][/ul]
The attempt to categorize errors as described in the article is a step in the right direction, and I think Cecil’s correct in his approach of evaluating the errors collectively.
After reading Cecil’s response, I went back and re-read the original question from Lily Leach. I think it’s obvious that her poor spelling in that question does not indicate poor intelligence. If a person’s poor spelling is a result of stupidity, you’d expect to find other indicators, like disorganized/disjointed language, logical inconsistencies, etc.
CJJ* writes:
> . . . that doesn’t mean their stupid . . .
Insert your own joke here.
As an editor, I’ve worked with some very, very smart people who just can’t fucking spell. In a lot of cases their vocabulary exceeds their spelling ability by a lot. Fortunately they have me, the person who can figure out that by “beomuth” they mean “behemoth” (not too much of a stretch) and by “tesic” they mean “phthisic” (a somewhat bigger stretch).
In contrast, I had a sort of friend in high school who had an IQ of–well, I don’t know what, she made it to 9th grade before being slotted into a special school. The term wasn’t around but I think she had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. At any rate, she was totally not smart, on any level. Personal care, math, reasoning ability, morals. But when I moved, and she wrote me letters, her spelling was perfect.
I also worked with a guy who claimed to be fluent in 7 languages. I cannot attest to his fluency in anything but English (not his mother tongue; yes, he was fluent) but I can say that he couldn’t spell for shit in at least three of those languages (English, Spanish, French).
D-
You have erroneously misconstrued the pertinent spelling of words which compromises the reader’s interpretation of your argument.
If you’re going to misconstrue, do it correctly. 
It is also fairly easy to create a personal dictionary of jargon (obviously requires looking the word up first). For that matter, I believe that there are ready made profession-specific dictionaries out there that you can just import.
I’d like to make a couple of points if I may. The first is that it is widely recognised now that there is more to intelligence than that measured by normal IQ tests (which measure verbal, visiospatial and mathematical intelligence). Other forms of intelligence include musical, kinaesthetic (think footballers), interpersonal (think entertainers) and intrapersonal (roughly, one’s ability to self-develop). High interpersonal and kinaesthetic intelligence is valued far more highly by much of society than the intelligence spheres measured by IQ.
The second is an admission from one who finds spelling and grammar relatively easy to those of you who might be able to spell correctly if they think about things but can’t be bothered. Whether or not it is fair to do, so many of us will judge you on the quality of your spelling and grammar. Whether or not this is our fault is somewhat debatable - it is arguably an adverse side-effect of our schooling. If you want to give the impression of high intelligence to everybody including us bigots it might pay you to turn on the bloody spell checker!
…Or switch to Opera which I note was automatically spell checking as I wrote the above.
Their out to get me, I tell ya:-)
I could have graduated high school half way through the tenth grade and started college. One teacher wouldn’t let me take Econ so I just finished school there. I threw the school in a frenzy when I told them I wanted to take a year off before going to college. After getting into college I tested out of a year and a half of MTU. I got into some hard classes but did get acceptable grades. I quit MTU after my first class on being a doctor. The professor mentioned dramatically that the idea of getting return customers was what you want because the reason you’re here is to make money. The class yea’d and clapped. I wanted no part of that kind of life. I went to transfer to EE but many of my credits would not be the applicable. I quit. I went to work whereever I desired, it was easy to learn different jobs. I have learned many professions and can do just about anything. Now why would someone say that I have wasted my life? I have learned more than most people have. Why do you have to be a doctor, professor, or physisist to get respected in life. I am respected by the people I know and that’s plenty good for me. I am not interested in being something I am not. Some people look at their path of life they would find many things they would change. I do not want to change anything. I am satisfied with where I am and have gotten there honestly. I’m not rich but my name is Rich anyway. Money doesn’t impress me. I don’t know how they did IQ’s in the seventies and haven’t a clue what makes people admire high IQs. It doesn’t matter to me what my IQ is. I see intelligence in everyone and every living thing. I learned most everything I know from people who were supposed to be less intelligent than I. I thank them for the teachings. College doesn’t make people smart and degrees aren’t necessary in life… I didn’t invent anything that killed anyone or caused countries to be constantly cash strapped like Einstein did, but I can make good soup.
What is MTU? What do you mean by your first class on being a doctor? At what point did you take this class? Was this as an undergraduate or in medical school? I find it hard to believe that any teacher would ever say that the point of being a doctor was to get return customers. You say that you’ve learned many professions and can do just about anything. Really? Can you teach a philosophy class in college and explain the difference between the philosophies of Kant and Spinoza? Can you teach a math class in college and explain the proof that there isn’t a general solution for the fifth-degree equation? Can you play a cello, an oboe, and a baritone horn? Can you diagnose cancer and explain to a patient what his chances are for living for living five more years? Can you use the results of a survey using a telescope to find new exoplanets? Can you write a newspaper article based on the research you did and get the article done by deadline? Can you design a skyscraper? Can you design the operating system for a new computer? Just what professions do you mean?
Some people are simply poor typists. The excuse I usually use on FB is that I can’t type and spell at the same time.
Furthermore, whereas, most documents on my 'puter are automatically SpellChecked – underlining questionable spellings with a dotted squiggly red line – on FB my SpellCheck must be intentionally deployed. Thus, is the heat of the moment of posting a comment, I usually forget to deploy SpellCheck.
I think firefox comes with a built in spellcheck dictionary. One can choose US or UK English spelling as well.
In non-work related contexts though, I don’t decry eschewing it, especially if one doesn’t use firefox. Hell, I don’t even mind convoluted non-standard abbreviations that end up longer than the original word. It’s probably just people wanting to be unique (though it does put a bit more strain on the reader than the writer when one uses non-standard English - even if the phrase is “technically” correct). Again, the important thing is knowing in which context certain phrases are utilised rather than acknowledging the one Platonic ideal.
People often comment that I come across as rather different online compared to real life, probably because in order to construe as much emotion I’d need to spruce my text with as many emoticons as to make it illegible. So when I’m talking with people online, my speech is usually either dessicated or frivolous.
I remember reading in “The Language Instinct” about a group of people that had mild cognitive defects, but could confabulate with ease, talking at length and with a complex vocabulary about events that never occurred. I often wonder whether I am one of them.