Spelling - To correct or not to correct ?

[misty]

annem

My son is now 18 and is an apprentice carpenter ... Every week he has to fill in a timesheet for work ... and every week he writes (for Tuesdays when he attends college which is paid for by his work)

Tuesday .... Collage ..... 8 hours

Now his company have never ever said anything about this spelling and they pay him with no comment on the "a" instead of an "e" ... and the obvious thing to do is to correct him ...

BUTTTTT because he has always had a little dyslexia and he is now 18 I am hesitating on doing this ... because maybe it could open u p a "floodgate" about all the other words he spells incorrectly ... (and there are many ... even though the mistakes are minor) ...

I have spent the past 18 years correcting every little spelling error he makes (and to be honest he STILL makes the errors!) ... and maybe now its time to back-off and to be honest nobody else seems bothered by it!!?? ... I am just "not sure" ... what do you think??



misty

Anne, my dad, who's not ADD or LD, is a terrible speller! He not only makes some mistakes such as you have mentioned, but also makes mistakes such as using aloud for allowed or there for their. Hes 62 & no amount of correcting him works (although my sister & I do teasingly correct him & he laughs along with us). He's even been known to call us & ask how to spell something. Correcting him in a serious way just embarrasses him, so we don't do it. I guess there's just a point in time we need to stop correcting & just let them make their mistakes.



jj

I have a little bit different take on this. When "spell checkers" came out I found I misspelled quite a few words. I was so embarassed to realize this. I still misspell words and am a little like Misty's Dad, in that, if I am in a hurry or preoccupied I don't stop and think which "sound alike" word I should use. If I think about it, no problem. Now if someone really doesn't know the difference I do think this has to be a LD of some sort.

Now if your son was not getting his college paid for by the company I probably wouldn't say a thing. However, since they are it may be something you want to bring up. Just address that word and that word only and do explain the difference and in a way for him to remember like: collage - a group of things and college - education. A in "a group" can be the reminder collage is spelled with an "a" and E in education can be the reminder that college is spelled with an e.

I think if anyone has noticed this error and they see it corrected next time then maybe they will be assured they are investing this money wisely into his education. And I think it is better coming from you than from someone else who may notice. Just my opinion.



Charlie Girl


I agree with JJ. They are investing in his education and it is in his best interest to hand in the paperwork as accurate as possible.

If he were to continue to misspell the same word through the entire course, it could come back to haunt him if he is in line for a promotion and they check his records to verify that he attended faithfully, etc.

Seeing the correction will assure them that he is concerned with accuracy and is open to improving himself, that his schooling isn't just because he thinks its expected of him. In other words, it can say a lot more about him than you or he realizes.

I've hired and fired before and if there were more than one candidate, that would definitely play a part in deciding who got the job for even the most minor position.

JJ, I love the way you pointed out to remember the spelling. I had a hard time with some words, like principle and principal. I finally realized that a principal is a pal. I never misspell it now so I am always looking for ways to help my son remember. I'm going to use that one.

[misty]

opps - unknown at this time who posted this

Yes, I did tell JJ in a PM earlier that her advice was good. I was thinking about it from a different angle, not the angle of future hiring or them looking at how he was improving since they are funding his college.

I do, however, think that in this day and age with computers & spell check, not as much importance is put on actual spelling. Its not the end of the world if he becomes an adult who has trouble with a few aspects of spelling. My father is no less respected by his colleagues for not being an ace speller. Of course, he does work in a computer company, they all probably use spell check as a rule! LOL!


Charlie Girl

There are many jobs out there where you don't use a computer and still need to spell.

Since your son is in construction and so far loves what he is doing, to progress there he will at some point be required to provide estimates and job orders. He is more likely to get promoted if they see that he does care enough to correct what he can of his weak areas.

He's a great guy and a good worker, I'd hate to see something he can correct get in the way of him succeeding.


jj


This is an interesting topic to me because as hiring manager in the law firm I work for spelling is so important. Every candidate has to take a test for spelling, grammer, etc. They don't pass, they aren't hired. Granted, I'm in a business that spelling is key (luckily, I passed the test, LOL) whereas construction may not be as important.

You have no idea how many resumes go straight to the reject pile because they didn't bother to check their spelling or their grammer is horrific. I absolutely cringe at some of the resumes from kids that just came out of college and I'm not that great at it myself so you know it has to be bad.

Spell check is a great tool but what happens if you forget to use it just once in an email to the boss. [image]


misty


k, this brings another interesting question to my ever-turning mind: What importance do you think learning cursive has on someones life?

My daughter CANNOT write in cursive to save her life. Shes labored & toiled over it since 3rd grade. she's in 6th now & still cannot use it legibly. I have thought about this & decided that it really isn't important at all. As long as she can sign her name, I'll be happy. I'm 39 & never use cursive other than to sign my name. I either print or use the computer. Her printing has improved greatly & is actually quite nice now.

I'd love to hear some other views on this subject.




Charlie Girl


For the jobs I would typically hire someone for, the apps and forms would either be printed or typed, so cursive wouldn't be as important to me as the ability to spell and use proper grammar.

Frankly, as long as I can read what they have written and understand it, plus they spell reasonably well, cursive wouldn't be a factor. I would rather have a neatly printed, legible form turned in than to try to decipher someone's cursive. That includes the ones who think they are going to impress me with caligraphy type writing.

[misty]

jj

I think it is more important to read cursive than write it. You never know when someone will hand you a note written in cursive but you can always respond in print. (Seems to be accepted now-a-days) Since Shannon struggles with it I think you made the right decision. There are more important things she needs to learn than cursive.

Funny, in my work so many of the men, both young and old, print hand written notes. Most of the older women write in cursive and the younger ones write a combination of the two or print.

I really can't think of any job where cursive would be a mandatory need however I do think it would be a shame if cursive was dropped from the school curriculum.


annem

Wow THANKYOU !! ... There are some really good points here ... all of which I am taking on board ... I think I am coming up with a mixture of letting Sam's spelling "be" (like Misty's Dad) BUT correcting him on this one word (as jj suggests) ... especially as you so rightly pointed out jj ... the company are PAYING for him to attend college once a week and I am sure they would like to see some evidence of that ... even if its just the sudden correct spelling of "college" !!

Now I just have to pick my moment to tell him that college is spelt with an "e" and not an "a" ... the reason I am hesitating is that he gets very embarrassed when he realises he is spelling something so obviously incorrectly ... so I have to find a way to tell him without it sounding like "Oh you idiot ... you have been spelling college with an "a" all this time!" ... [image]

Any ideas ?



lillian

That's a very common spelling error, like seperate for separate. It's just a slight phonemic variation and can be accent dependent, varying according to what area of the country you are from. You might want approach the topic by pointing this out to him. It's really nothing to be embarrassed about.




Charlie Girl

Maybe you could just have a "sudden" revelation when he is around and go "Hey! I just realized that" and repeat what JJ pointed out about being able to tell the two apart. He will hopefully remember the next time he fills out his report. [image]

If you do it while you are reading something, he won't know that you were picking your moment and didn't just discover it.

I'm an interfering parent and my kids know it so I would just point it out. They catch me on stupid mistakes also so as long as its not in front of a friend, they don't think anything of it.



jj

Annem,
Is there any word that you had trouble with...at some point in your life? Maybe you could say...."You know I always had trouble getting <insert the words you had trouble with> confused.... and I noticed you spelled college with an A...etc..."

Gosh, it is hard to come up with a nice way to say something like that. I'll keep thinking but right now....I'm drawing a blank.

lostmyshoe


Hi Annem,

Sounds like a bit of a sticky decision for you. I know how sensitive my daughter is about being corrected so I try to find positive ways to do it. If it were my daughter, I'd probably find a nice way to tell her because I think it would benefit her education wise. She may get a little annoyed at me at times but usually later on she tells me she's glad I pointed something out. You've had much good advice here and I hope everything works out for the best.

[misty]

annem


Thank you soooo much all of you !! ...

Well I DID correct him on CollEge ... and he was FINE about that correction ... I don't think he will be spelling College wrong again ... BUT I left it there (just as JJ suggested - i.e. this word and this word only) ...

The only thing is that to be honest this IS the tip of the iceburg ... and despite many years of school and college etc it is still a weakness for him and I think always will be ... Today I spotted (again on his weekly timesheet) in the "diary" section... "I then Cealed the tap area" ... I am NOT going there!!



jj

I'm glad he was O.K. with the correction. Whew! Maybe you should just stop looking at his time sheet thing. LOL

If it is any consolation, you have no idea how many young kids fresh out of college can't spell. I'd say 60% of them. Very sad.

[jfla]

annem,

My boy is 18 and spelling challenges him too. It seems that the point that I stopped correcting he started trying to figure it out.

For the same reason that you wanted "collage" corrected, I finally said something to my son last year about his continual misspelling of "piano" in his planner as "paino."

I am embaressed to say that I was not very tactful or sensitive when I said that for someone that loves playing the piano as much as he does, he should spell it correctly. Well, after that I never saw it misspelled again.

He used to spell "college" just like your son. Now I'm wondering if he can spell it correctly since he recently finished all of his college aps!