So when did you write the other two posts of the five that you have as at this time? When you were a non-ardent reader? 
The noble band grows and so the armies of righteousness march on…
bwahahahahahahahahaha
pan
I don’t think it’s worth it to spell check each post. I certainly don’t, and I know that my posts have frequent typos and misspellings. But why would you include a word in a post that you’re pretty sure is wrong?
I usually have more than one window up at once, and I don’t find that it takes so long to search for a word at m-w.com (though they are doing more pop-up ads recently–very annoying) or at Google, if it’s a more obscure term.
I can think of a few circumstances where it’s warranted–I know I’ve used sp? in the past–I’m almost never in that big a hurry to post. It’s a crutch, if you ask me. I’d rather learn how to spell.
Incidentally WL, Drastic, Dolores and ashtayk, if you want your FREE and exclusive merchandise consisting including a FREE polaroid of the relevant dictionary page (it really is a very funny definition) then just send £25 postage and packing to the following address…
heh
pan
Last time I used it I was discussing Jewish characters in cartoons, and Rugrats came up.
I mentioned that, save for the Passover and Channuka(sp?) episodes you wouldn’t know they were Jewish.
What would you use in place of Channuka(sp?) there?
(And going with the H spelling rather than the Ch one would still leave me wondering if I misspelled it.)
Well, let’s give this a test off the top of my head. Hang on…there we go. Report:
New browser window.
zap to Google.com
type in “Jewish holidays”
first link is to a recipe page, go there.
First item on page recipes for Yom Kippur.
Scroll down.
“Hannukah”.
Elapsed time, < 30 seconds. On a dialup connection currently chugging along at 28.8. At least five of that was the pause to think of an effective search term.
Not only have you avoided looking like a doof, you’ve just fought a minor piece of ignorance in yourself as to the most common transliteration of the word into English letters.
Elapsed time from hitting “submit” to the board finally process, ~120 seconds. Just to put things in perspective.
By the by, Chanukka is also a transliteration that appears on various pages I surfed rapidly through while waiting for the board to actually update. As far as spelling it goes, that’s admittedly harder to find out quickly–I know there’s at least a cheth and a nun or two and probably a kaph, but damned if I know if the a and u are transliterations of non-lettered vowel sounds or alephs or what.
Using (sp?) doesn’t make me look like a ‘doof’ except to people with more time on their hands than brains in their heads. Being a victim of phonics isn’t 'doof’y.
Bitching that people being honest about their lack of ability to spell means that they don’t respect their readers (when, conversely, it shows a whole hell of a lot more respect for them, both their intelligence and their ability to spell than your giving the average person), on the other hand makes you look like a ‘doof’.
Yup. Not taking 30 extra seconds shows tremendous respect for the reader. Really, taking those 30 extra seconds would just show contempt for them. I am appropriately humbled, and grovel for forgiveness.
By the way, kabbes is apparently giving out broken mice. I don’t want mine, as previously stated, and you’re welcome to it as a peace offering.
Heh. By not taking the two extra seconds to notice the lack of a “not”, I have also showed you great respect.
This philosophy is very liberating. I am indebted.
Der, I would go to http://www.m-w.com, I would type in Chunnuka, and find that it lists “Chanuka”, and that if I read the entry for “Chanuka”, I would find that “Hanukkah” is the preferred spelling, and I would use that. Drastic’s method works fine, also.
What the hell is so hard about that?
And what is this bullshit about “being honest about their lack of ability to spell?”
Jiminy Fuckin’ Christmas, you act like there is no possible way to find the correct spelling of a word. What, do you think that some people have a gene that tells them how to spell, and if you don’t have the gene, oh, poor pitiful you, you’re doomed to sprinkle your documents with “sp?” and never have a high-paying job in the wonderful world of using the English fucking language, and everybody should feel sory for you?
I am a terrible speller. I used to mangle “necessary” so badly that the spell checker was at a loss as to what to suggest. I still have to look up “privilege” every time I use it. (Yes, in fact, I did just look it up.) I’m not trying to trick anyone into thinking I’m a spelling bee champion. I’m just not going to waste the reader’s time by banging out some phonetic approximation to the word I’m looking for, slapping “sp?” on it, and leave it to the reader to decipher it. It is my responsiblity as the writer to be as clear as possible.
I am pretty tolerant of misspellings–I realize that I make enough of them myself. Bad spellers can still have interesting things to say. People make mistakes. But when the poster can’t be bothered to check on a spelling that they are unsure of, and instead, lazily, tack an “sp?” on, as if that forgives all, and this behaviour is persistent, then I think I’ve learned a thing or two about the poster. The poster who consistently falls back on “sp?” doesn’t want to become a better speller. They are content to remain ignorant, and expect their readers to cut them slack.
I’m at SDMB to read thoughtful posts by intelligent and knowledgeable people, people who want to learn more and stretch their horizons–not people who are too lazy and inconsiderate to crack a dictionary.
You’re right, wasting ‘30’ seconds (you ARE kidding about that, right? Even going directly to Dictionary.com takes closer to 2 minutes just to get the home page.) that could be spent actually composing the message on opening another page, certainly shows more respect for the reader than assuming they’d have half the brains of a babboon and be able to figure out what you meant if you misspelled the word.
Tengu: Y’know, you can look up words in a regular Dictionary, not the kind with “.com” at the end. Only takes a second. Or, (as someone else said) you can open up your word processor and run it through the spell check there. See, in a forum like this, good language skills are like good grooming. People are going to make all sorts of judgements about you based on how you present yourself. If you don’t make the effort to use language properly, a lot of people are going to assume you don’t care what other people think about you, which shows both a lack of respect to your audience and to yourself. Of course, everyone makes mistakes, and no one is going to hold the occasional typo against you. But using (sp?) is saying “I don’t know and I don’t care,” and that sort of attitude isn’t going to get you very far, especially in a board dedicated to fighting ignorance. Also, if I were going to refer to a religous observance as important as Hanukkah, simple courtesy would lead me to double check that I was spelling the word correctly.
OK, I give up.
I’m some monstrous fiend because I can’t be arsed to pander to the least intelligent amongst my audience who are unable to figure out what the hell I’m saying unless everything’s spelt the same way as in the OED.
No, I have committed the grievious sin of assuming:
a) that my audience has the intelligence to puzzle out the meaning despite the odd Typo or Misspelling (heretofore ToM);
b[sub]1[/sub]) that they spell better than I do and would spot the ToM;
b[sub]2[/sub]) they are literate enough that even the odd archaism or obscure word I use will make it into b[sub]1[/sub]
c) That they’re not so tight-assed about spelling that they won’t feel the need to insult me for it and would, at best, correct the ToM.
But, no, I find that making these assumptions shows a great disrespect for them, and that I should assume that they’re dull as a bag of doorknobs, illiterate, and anal-retentive.
BTW, the above post was not spellchecked, or even proof read, and it probably full of ToMs.
It was, however, given thought that, apparently, should have been given to how to spell ‘Chanukkah’.
Put a input box for MW in your browser’s home page (like this). Then it’s just Ctrl-N, typity-type, and you have increased your word power.
Tengu, you have a fucked up idea of “respect.” Maybe you should misspell more words, just to display how much faith you have in your readers. Perhaps you think that the reader is so honored by the privilege of viewing your posts that they’d be horrified by the thought of your wasting 30 seconds, or 2 minutes, or however long it would take you to reach for a dictionary, instead of generating more of your mystical braindroppings for their perusal.
Anyway, fuck the reader. Don’t you want to learn to spell better? Wouldn’t you like go forth in the world knowing how to spell “Hanukkah” instead of knowing that you’re going to just mangle it and put sp? after it the next time you use it? (And fuck if I’m ever going to forget how to spell “Hanukkah” again after this G-d forsaken thread.)
No, Podkayne, YOU’re the one with the fucked up idea of respect.
Respect doesn’t come from wasting time on inconseqential things like spelling mistakes which don’t effect comprehension. Respect comes from making sure the message makes sense - which rarely has a god damned thing to do with spelling.
Anal retentive assholes like you haven’t a clue about what respect really means.
You think ‘respect’ means pandering to your misguided idea of ‘correct’ spelling, rather than communicating an idea.
And, after this, no, I don’t want to learn to spell better. I want to come up with ‘creative’ spellings for even the most simple words just to piss off pissant little pedants like you who care more about the spelling than the content.
kabbes point is valid, and running posts through a spell-checker isn’t horribly much to ask of a fellow.
But I 'm not going to do it. While I don’t think I have ever appended (sp?) to a post, I am one of the worst offenders for the careless type and the “fractured sentence because I changed ym thougt in mid-typo”. I wish that were not so, but I am unlikely to change. Intellectually I understand that composing in another window and then pasting into the reply page involves only a tiny alteration in my habiits. It would potentialy avoid confusion on the part of my fellow Dopers. It would protect me from the occassional ridicule that my typos engender. It would make perfect sense.
But I don’t think it will happen. You see, for me the SDMB is a medium for conversation. I just click on reply and start “talking”. Ever since Baby Mundi graced my world, I have had little enough time even for that.
So, you are right. I should do better. mea culpa. But it ain’t likely to change anytime soon. Feel free to make fun of my mistakes.
But if I know that I can’t spell a word, then I do look it up. I mean, mispronouncing stuff is just embarrassing, right?
People who make a big deal about spelling or grammar mistakes are generally the pseudo-intellectual types. Most truly intelligent people realize that the rules behind spelling and grammar are really just arbitrary or based on some idiotic traditions anyway. So as long you’re getting your message across, why should anyone care?
But I still think that it’s important to learn and use proper spelling and grammar. But this is only because some of the pseudo-intellectual types make their way up to teaching or managing. These are the people that will fail you or block your promotion just because you screwed up a spelling.
So, as far as I’m concerned, the people who really care about these things aren’t anal-retentive, they’re condescending. They think that they’re a class above the people who don’t care about spelling and grammar. They think that spelling correctly and using grammar correctly somehow makes them intelligent. Sorry, but these things are based on memory. Anybody who wants to learn them can by dedicating some time to them. But most of have more important issues in our lives.
DING DING DING! We have a winner!
The accidental typo isn’t being complained about in this thread (because everyone, everyone, occasionally snaps out things like “liek” or “hte” or “priviledge” or “necesary” when on a roll, and will miss them on a quick preview before submitting)–except, curiously, by those who are very thin-skinnedly and emphatically defending it from an attack that isn’t there. People are strange critters all around, no question.
The deliberate misspelling, brushed off, is the subject. When you know, or have strong suspicion, that the sequence of letters you just put down is not correct.
Apparently there is a sharper philosophical divide on the subject than I ever expected. I’m curious as to when learning how to correctly spell a word that you don’t yet know becomes disrespect. Is it disrespectful to the elementary teacher grading spelling tests? When he or she puts a gold or silver or smiley-face sticker on one with high marks, is she or he seething inside at the sheer gall of the student wasting the time to learn it?
I also don’t much see how it respects the reader’s ability to spot misspelled words, because it basically points a giant arrow at it. (sp?), disregarding the additional implications in the OP, is shorthand for, “Hey you! Yeah, you, reader person! This word RIGHT HERE is probably misspelled!” If you respect the reader’s ability to spot such things, why put that there? It’s like saying sticking “left” and “right” stickers onto the appropriate hands that you respect that someone’s ability to tell their left from their right. Very strange. Stranger still is the idea that it’s an either-or choice between
A: communicate the idea
OR
B: spend an extra few seconds when the idea includes words you’re ignorant of the spelling of.
It’s an AND. (Time composing) + (time correcting) does NOT equal (time composing) - (time correcting).
::shrug:: Clearly, that’s not agreed with. Personally, I like to learn new things, especially when doing so takes only a brief amount of time (the “30 seconds” wasn’t exaggerated. one-onethousand two-one-thousand and everything while doing it. Doing so again took about 50 this time, though. dictionary.com, counting opening a new browser window, took nine seconds to load to the point where a word could be inputted. Now, people have differing speeds of computers and net behaviors depending on where they are; my pc isn’t really bleeding edge anymore, but once again my allegedly 56K modem refused to connect at anything above 28.8, but perhaps I’ve got a connection luck speed aura.) Besides simply learning spelling, the etymology of words are frequently pretty damn interesting, not to mention some of the archaic and/or lesser-used meanings. Others apparently dislike cracking a dictionary with a passion, and that’s their right–or perhaps rite.
People are strange. God bless 'em for that. Things would be awfully dull without it.