Hold me back. Hold me back! This is a subject which has driven me beyond despair on more than one forum.

I was raised to believe that not correcting your spelling and not proof-reading beforehand is an insult to the reader; not respecting the time they then have to take to decipher your poor spelling and poor grammar.

I refuse to acknowledge the common mobile-phone abbreviations, either when being sent texts on my phone, or via the various messengers. I think my contacts have got used to the idea that if they expect me to respond, I respond only to proper English..

I shudder to imagine what it is exactly they are being taught in schools today, but clearly English isn't high on the agenda. I remember, only too well, our English teacher when being asked "Sir, how do you spell {insert word]?" His reply would always be, "I spell it correctly, boy, and strongly suggest you do the same."

In my day you couldn't just write something and then rely on the word processor to make the corrections for you. I wouldn't have dared to ask my parents how to spell something as I knew the response beforehand; go find it in the dictionary!

As harsh as it may all sound, to this day I absolutely love the English language.

This is an interesting one, I remember asking my mum and dad about it years ago when I realised that most of my friends said kilometre although we'd always said kilometre. My mum studied languages at university, and both my parents are intersted in liguistics and etymology, so they whipped out the dictionaries and gave me a quick lesson in phonetic spellings. The original, correct pronunciation of most of these four-syllable words is to put the emphasis on the second to last syllable (controversy). This tradition comes straight from Latin, and is still very much the rule in modern Italian. More and more these days, people put the stress on the second syllable (controversy) because it's marginally easier to get the word out that way. This cultural "laziness" has actually led to there being two accepted ways of pronouncing the words, and in some modern dictionaries, there are two alternative phonetic spellings given. Certain institutions do (quite rightly, in my opinion) insist on their members sticking to the traditional spellings and pronunciations. I believe news readers are coached in pronunciation before they're let loose on the public.

I find poor spelling and loose grammar much more difficult to follow than good writing. There's a reason why languages have rules to follow and it comes down to ease of communication. I don't have a problem with slang, or with additions to the language, and obviously some people are going to have more trouble with spelling than others, but I find it difficult to accept the obvious lack of care some people give it. I also think that, while modernisation of the language has its place, in some contexts we need continuity in our written and spoken English. Official documents and scientific reports should stick to immaculate spelling and grammar, right down to putting foreign words in italics and a circumflex above the "o" in role What's more, children should be taught to read and write this kind of English to make the world a more accessible (sp?!) place.

im really not very good at spelling but i try hard ,, i hope i dont offend anyone too much with my bad english

Thankyou for enlightening me duboing, or should I say putting me to shame!!! I will now keep quiet when the newsreaders say it their way!!! Perhaps!

Thats OK, at least you've got an excuse, not like some of the lazy people that post here. Your posts are a lot better than many others

I got the original post in my email there!

ooohhhh! Ray, are you a pedant then?

yeah me too rips,, morons, thats a bit harsh,, we are not all good at spelling im afraid but try our best

That must have been quick, then, because I edited it straight away, as I realised it was a bit strong

Yes, it was a bit harsh, thats why I amended it. What I was getting at, was that although poor spelling is to some degree excusable, it is only common curtesy to the intended audience, to re-read your post and correct the silly mistakes, like no spacing between words, or getting letters wrong (like hte instead of the)

There have been some terrible examples of people just banging their posts out, and then submitting it, obviously not checking it first. This is what I am referring to as lazy. I appreciate everyone can make spelling and puntuation mistakes, and I have certainly made some, but would be ashamed of myself if my posts were as bad as some I've read.

However, to anyone who may have read my post before it was edited, please accept my apolopgies