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CASLL-L  August 2008

CASLL-L August 2008

Subject:

Re: spelling!

From:

Shurli Makmillen <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

CASLL/Inkshed <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:01:28 -0400

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (92 lines)

hi Ginny

i have an anecdote about spelling, and an observation. 

Over the years I have received emails sent out to the university community by Deans, 
VPs,chairs and colleagues, that contain occasional spelling errors.

No big deal, we say. We all slip up, And besides, maybe email is more vulnerable to this. 
I certainly have never felt any less of the sender, and i don't know who would.

But on a couple of other occasions emails with the odd spelling glitch have been
sent out by support staff and secretaries; what was noticeable was how they were quickly
 followed up with these earnest apologies. (no humour, but seemingly heartfelt regret)

So yes, it's about ethos, but it is also about power. Who doesn't care about errors, and
 who gets to feel they have to care?

Good luck with your radio broadcast!


shurli

Shurli Makmillen
Contemporary Studies 
Wilfrid Laurier University (Brantford)
73 George Street
Brantford, ON.
CANADA   N3T 2V3

Phone: 519 756 8228 EXT 5737 
>>> Virginia Ryan <[log in to unmask]> 08/27/08 2:55 PM >>>
Greetings to everyone on this list!  I have just been invited to sit in 
as the "visiting expert" on a CBC radio "Cross-talk" show on the topic 
"Does Spelling Matter?"  It sounds to me like Pandora's box is once 
again to be opened in the province of Newfoundland.  With equal parts 
delight and terror, I said "yes," and now I'm turning to all of you for 
positions, epiphanies, and metaphors. You see, they wanted someone who 
"sees both sides of the issue," and in me they found such a someone. I 
am old enough (and old-fashioned enough???) to feel that yes, it matters 
very much (in many contexts). But I also listen every day to brilliant 
and passionate young tutors who argue for simplicity and accessibility, 
and who point out that deliberate, alternate spellings shouldn't matter 
if they do not interfere with understanding (as Charles Shultz once put 
it in one of his cartoons, "If K-A-T doesn't spell 'cat,' what /does /it 
spell?")

This issue is forcing me to try to resolve a dilemma I've carried around 
for years. For example, I absolutely hate comma splices, but I've never 
quite determined whether my hatred of them stems from some justifiable 
philosophical principle that I haven't yet managed to articulate, or 
rather from simple snobbishness and adherence to 
rules-for-the-sake-of-rules. Similarly, and more to the point, here, I 
hate the sign outside the garden centre that says "Begonia's for sale," 
but wonder whether my reaction is really justifiable, since any reader 
will understand that all the sign /means/ is that there is more than one 
begonia being sold.

Now, I understand and can readily explain to any call-in guest that in 
the context of a student paper submitted for a grade at a university, 
while misspellings generally (not always! I know!) do not interfere with 
meaning, they are also generally considered unacceptable by the intended 
readership and so should be avoided. But the bigger questions are _why_ 
are such spellings unacceptable?  Do they matter outside of academia 
(and business)? And if they matter, why do they matter?

I welcome any and all reactions, apologize for my own lengthy silence on 
this list, and hope that despite it you'll be vocal!

Ginny Ryan
The Writing Centre
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, Newfoundland

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                -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
  To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
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For the list archives and information about the organization,
    its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
              http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/
                 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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