Poor spelling doesn’t equal inferior intelligence, but it does require a Plan B
After a recent conversation with a Facebook pal about her spelling challenges, I was reminded of this voicemail I received from a client a few years back:
Hi, Laura. It’s Elizabeth. I really hope I caught you in time. You know that article I sent you to edit? Don’t open it! I mean, I hope you didn’t look at it yet. I just reread it, and realized it’s terrible. I need to rework it. I’ll see what I can do with it later this afternoon, and send you my improved version tonight or tomorrow. Thanks.
Unfortunately, Elizabeth never sent me the revision.
Funny thing about writing: many people have absolutely ZERO confidence in their ability to do it. What they often fail to realize is that they are much more skilled than they give themselves credit for. And for those whose ability is less than stellar, that’s the whole reason editors have jobs, isn’t it?
What I’d like to convince my client, Elizabeth — and everyone else out there who feels similarly — is that there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed about with regard to their writing skills. No matter how bad the spelling or how egregious the grammar errors, none of that is representative of how smart she is; nor does it diminish the importance of the information she wants to share with her audience.
In a 2000 Suite101.com article, “What Does Your Spelling Say About You Behind Your Back?” Sandra Linville references Marilyn Vos Savant’s book, The Art of Spelling: The Madness and the Method. Vos Savant wrote her book after conducting a 1998 survey in her Parade Magazine column, in which she asked, “What does your spelling really say about you? Is spelling ability a measure of your education, intelligence, desire, or none of the above?”
In her article, Linville explains, “The survey garnered more than 42,000 responses, indicating that better organizational skills benefit spelling ability, rather than intelligence. However, Vos Savant realizes that inept spellers can look inept in other ways. A misspelled word can kill a job offer or result in a rejected proposal. She also states that an English-speaking perfect speller doesn’t exist.”
Corresponding with Vos Savant’s theory, it is widely reputed that Albert Einstein, the unquestionable genius physicist, was so bad at spelling that he was initially assumed to be retarded. In fact, according to the 1998 ScienceGoGo.com article, “Ten Obscure Factoids Concerning Albert Einstein,” Factoid #3 is:
He Was a Rotten Speller. Although he lived for many years in the United States and was fully bilingual, Einstein claimed never to be able to write in English because of “the treacherous spelling.” He never lost his distinctive German accent either, summed up by his catch-phrase “I vill a little t’ink.”
Some now purport that Einstein struggled with dyslexia, a learning disorder that impairs a person’s fluency or comprehension accuracy. However, this claim is only speculative. Nevertheless, spelling is only one of several serious difficulties facing people with dyslexia.
According to Dyslexia-Parent.com, there are four main challenges for a dyslexic person:
1. Spelling
2. Sentence punctuation
3. Handwriting
4. Sequencing ideas
In such a case, lack of intelligence clearly is not the issue for a challenged speller.
There is also the distinction to be made between poor cognitive spelling skills and never having learned to do it properly. As Philip Hensher writes in the UK’s The Independent:
Spelling may, in the end, not be a very reliable indicator of intelligence, and it is certainly possible to imagine very intelligent and articulate people who lack the skill. But society has agreed that it is significant, and there is no doubt that people, at some point in their lives, will be judged partly on the basis of whether they can spell or not. It is simply the job of education to teach that skill, and it is incredible to hear professional teachers sneering at the notion.
I fear that this attitude is not all that unusual, however. A couple of years ago, I agreed to teach a residential course for sixth-formers who were interested in becoming journalists. They were from a disadvantaged part of London, but I would say they were intrinsically bright and capable. I set some written work: it arrived: I held my head in horror. Not one of them was capable of writing 20 words without making a mistake in spelling, and sometimes an elementary one.
The point here is not that they lacked ability, but that their education had never impressed on them the importance of accuracy. It seemed perfectly plausible to them, and to their teachers, that native ability and enthusiasm would be enough to qualify them to write prose for a living. The idea that accuracy might be needed had literally never occurred to them.
One interesting yet seldom-mentioned fact is the converse of this idea that poor spelling is an indication of inferior intelligence, that is, good spelling is NOT necessarily an indication of intelligence. A person may have strong memorization and/or language skills without possessing comprehensive intelligence across all subjects.
Beyond spelling, another consideration is the fact that not all of us are inherently strong in verbal/linguistic skills. Renowned social scientist Howard Gardner developed a model known as multiple intelligences, meaning that although each of us has many ways in which we learn and perceive information, we generally have one primary area where we excel. The eight intelligences Gardner identified are: Verbal/Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Musical/Rhythmic, and Naturalistic.
Although verbal and linguistic may be perceived as the most commonly emphasized of the eight intelligences, there are seven other skill sets at which a person may excel. Verbal/linguistic may be my personal strengths, but just ask my niece about my fiasco as a sub, teaching math to her 6th grade Montessori class.
What it comes down to is this: in business in particular, heighten and hone your natural skills and leverage them as far as you can – but HIRE OUT your weaknesses. Don’t worry that you don’t do it well as you hand over the project to your outsourcee – that’s why you’re hiring them!
My client who said she needed to rewrite her article before she sent it to me reminded me of those people who feel they have to clean their houses before the housekeeper arrives. That one also baffles me. Rather than focus on her imperfections, I wish she could celebrate her wisdom in reaching out for help. If we could all just get past our shame about our deficiencies and instead focus on the things we do well, life would be so much easier.
Laura
Originally posted on March 31, 2007 as “There’s No Shame in Being a Bad Speller/Poor Grammarian” on the blog Communication Made Easy, by Marcie Brock creator, Laura Orsini.
__________________
We welcome and encourage your thoughtful, courteous comments below.
__________________
If you are interested in participating in the Facebook Author Discussion Series on the Write | Market | Design page, please complete this survey and someone will get back to you to schedule your session.
This JUST arrived in my inbox: http://jannaverse.blogspot.com/2007/04/ill-take-dozen-please.html
What a great article, I certainly enjoyed reading it. Thank you Marcie Brock.
My developer is trying to persuade me to move to .
net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of
the expenses. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using Movable-type on numerous websites for about a year and
am anxious about switching to another platform. I have heard great things about blogengine.
net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress
content into it? Any help would be really appreciated!
I’m really not a WordPress expert, Myths. I find WordPress.com the easiest blog platform to use – but the stand-alone WordPress sites are mind boggling. If you value your blog and particularly your content, I’d bite the bullet and pay the fees to move forward. I’m guessing all of your WordPress content is importable – but you’ll need to check with the new site and your developer.
My best advice is to get ALL of your questions answered from your developer ahead of time. If you find he’s hedging on anything, i suggest getting a second opinion. You want a developer who supports you , but not who urges you to make chances ONLY because it means another paycheck for them.
Cheers to your PROFITmatic Turnkey Automated Internet Profit Center,.
He knew the system well enough to not pay many of his suppliers and
sub-contractors, then would cover it up up
by handing out fake lien releases to make it look like they were paid.
You can make corrections directly instead of having
to search mistake through the code, if something does not seem OK for you.
Einstein didn’t have access to the spell-checking resources available to anyone who attempts to write today. The best thing you can say about a poor speller is that he or she is too lazy to run a spell check.
I disagree, Larry. SpellCheck is helpful but (a) not foolproof, (b) not comprehensive, and (c) unable to discern incorrectly used homophones (their vs. there vs. they’re). Lazy *may* be a part of it – but spelling is not everyone’s strongest suit, and the premise – that this does not necessarily make them unintelligent – still stands.
Laura
This is a great article. I have a HORRIBLE time with grammar and spelling. I’m not lazy. I have 3 BS, a MS, and I’m finishing my PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. However, I also have ADD so i do not see my mistakes. Literally, I can’t see them. Now, I also don’t mind if someone points them out to me, because I like to be correct, but it’s not laziness it’s a disorder. I really do appreciate this article. Autistics are definitely a group of individuals who have poor verbal and written skills, then there is the learning disorder called written dysgraphia. Whenever I see someone who loves to be a grammar nazi all i think about is “wow, they really must not be able to think any deeper than dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s” which leads me to believe that they themselves do not possess multiple intelligence.
Fabulous response, Lena. Thank you for sharing your perspective!
Laura (aka Marcie Brock)
I would think that great writer’s scrawl with little thought of spelling or punctuation. The effort required to correct oneself during the process kills of the flow of spontaneous expression I would think. So people take heart, be free and write what’s on your mind, freely.
I don’t agree with the statement: “…nor does it diminish the importance of the information she wants to share with her audience.” Yes, it does. If a point or article is written poorly the message is difficult to read and the ideas are not communicated effectively. A message that is researched and written well is why we have respect for certain news or books over others. Writing well makes a great deal of difference.
You are conflating the importance of the message to the writer and the writer’s ability to communicate that message. These are two distinctly different things. AND … it is VERY, VERY seldom that you cannot divine the meaning of the message simply due to poor spelling. Is it more difficult to read? Yes. Less pleasant to read? Maybe. Harder to understand? Perhaps. So much so that you miss the meaning? Almost never. It’s far more likely that you will misunderstand the meaning behind a piece of writing where the writer misuses a big word because they’re trying to impress the reader than that you will misunderstand a piece of writing with spelling errors. Thanks for your feedback.
Ehh. I see these as rationalizations for not keeping up with basics. Missed it in school the first time? Take online courses and tests. It’s called self-improvement and ‘room for improvement’ as life-long activities. There’s no excuse, especially with spellcheck which will at least cue you to think. Yes, think. So, Lazy does factor. As for correlation between intelligence and spelling? It’s just that: a correlation, not cause. Fyi, it does scream the lack of concern for accuracy in general, so the information/author is not as trusted. So unless there’s a medical Dx involved, sorry, not buying the ‘bad spelling is ok’ campaign.
One of my high school students back in the 70s had extreme difficulties in spelling & reading. He was a handsome guy with pleasant personality. Anyway, he came in one day & told me he was going to sue all of his teachers because they never taught him to read or spell very well. I tried to explain to him that spelling skills tend to come easily to some, while some people never are able to spell regardless of the amount of instruction they receive. To prove it, I set up a series of mini-lessons (5-10 minutes per day) in which he would be given exactly one word: circle. Ken always spelled it SRKL. Every day for a week, I gave Ken a lesson that focused on the correct spelling of his nemesis word: circle. At the end of the week on Friday, I gave Ken a test with one item on it: he was asked to give the correct spelling of the word circle. He spelled it srkl. He was such a nice kid. I hope life has gone well for him.