When Scripps National Spelling Bee Competitors gather in Washington, DC on May 29 for the 81st national championships, young people from all over the US will sweat over arcane words ranging from accretionary to zeugma.
Yet most adults can't spell the ordinary words we use every day.
Words such as 'calendar', 'embarrass', 'questionnaire' and 'liaison' stumped adults in a random survey and spelling test of 18-60 year-olds by software company, WhiteSmoke - which has developed a contextual spell checker. 'Referring' and 'definitely' also left a large percentage of the 2,500 survey participants scratching their heads, according to the English language grammar and writing software firm.
Despite the dismal spelling ability, nearly a third of the respondents reckoned their spelling was excellent and another 46 percent claimed it was good.
Adults were shown 20 words and asked to pick out the correct spelling. 'Calendar' was misspelled by 19 percent of people, 20 percent were clueless when it came to spelling 'embarrass' and 'referring' drew blanks from 28 percent. Another 38 percent had no idea how to spell 'definitely'.
Almost a third were stumped by the spelling of 'liaison' and 40 percent got 'questionnaire' wrong, followed by 'accommodate,' which was misspelled 38 percent of the time. Even 'receive' was misspelled by 15 percent of respondents who apparently forgot the lesson covering, "I before E except after C."
Cell Phones, other Technology Blamed
Despite poor spelling performance and the fact that spellchecking technology has been around for decades it is not always used; only 59 percent said they rely heavily on their computer's spell check to get everything right. When asked why their spelling was not up to par, two-thirds blamed technology -- especially mobile phone predictive spelling and text speak abbreviations such as CUL8TR for see you later.
Amit Greener, vice president of sales and marketing for WhiteSmoke said: "It's surprising to learn that despite getting basic words wrong, a huge majority of adults regard their spelling skills as excellent or good and that only about 60 percent take full advantage of the very technology that can virtually eliminate this flaw from their writing."
He added, "Fortunately, broadcasting the annual National Spelling Bee on primetime, network TV with popular personalities hosting the event focuses attention on the importance of spelling. It's really an opportunity for parents to learn from their children."
Fired for Bad Spelling
The study also provided insight into those who believe that their poor spelling is a detriment. One in five admitted to avoiding handwriting letters or notes because their spelling is so poor. Six percent said their spelling was so bad they had lost a job because of it and another eight percent reckoned they had been passed over for a promotion.
Though their spelling ability might be deficient, 86 percent of the participants think it is important to be able to spell properly and 89 percent said they were bothered by their colleagues' spelling errors.
Posted to the site on 8th April 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/30373.php