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Fewer than one in four American teens has proficient writing skills


OceanH
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Even when allowed spell check and computers...

 

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/09/14/article-2203385-15047C0D000005DC-57_306x329.jpg

 

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/09/14/article-2203385-15047C1B000005DC-619_306x329.jpg

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203385/Less-American-teens-proficient-writing-skills--allowed-spell-check-computers.html

 

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/main2011/2012470.asp

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Not surprising. And I don't mean anything about the stereotype of Americans being stupid, I mean that if America is anything like here is Australia, then why would this be surprising?

At the moment with everyone over 9 years old (and plenty under) with an iphone (or other mobile) texting their friends and use of the internet with acronyms (bbl, brb, lol wtc) becoming widespread, it's no wonder kids these days can't tell the difference between your and you're or between there, their and they're.

It's so annoying because it really ISN'T THAT HARD. It takes a miniscule amount of your time to write using correct spelling and punctuation. And if you don't know how to spell a word, you can spend 2 seconds typing it into google and have it go 'Did you mean ...' and correct your spelling.

In an age where technology is so prolific, we should be spelling better, not worse.

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I was a teacher's assistant for a few semesters, and I had to grade the students' work. Most of them could not spell correctly. It was very sad. Someone thought the correct spelling of "surveillance" was "sir valent". Even in college now, I see crappy grammar and spelling. I get really excited when I meet someone who can actually spell everything right in a paragraph or a text message.

 

I used to type in computer lingo, and I felt like I couldn't spell as well as I used to. So I quit and just typed correctly, for instant messaging, text messaging, and emails. I'm always the guy to ask on how to spell a word.

 

The funny thing is, someone who wants to grow up and be part of the political system, couldn't even spell "candidate".

 

When I see one mistake, I usually stop reading there. It doesn't take much to proofread and correct your errors.

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I Hate People Who Type Like This On Forums. They Say Its A Habit, But I Wonder If They Do It With A Pen And Paper?

 

It should actually be harder to do on a computer than with pen and paper. Or at the very least more unnatural.

 

But less than 25% seems pretty extreme even for American teens. I'm no genius, but writing proficiently isn't hard if you just put a little effort in...ok I see where the problem is coming from.

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Here's a little tidbit, x360a automatically changes when someone writes all caps. As it were:

 

WAY BACK A FEW YEARS AGO WHEN I STILL CLAIMED MY FATHER HE WROTE AN ENTIRE BOOK OF STATISTICS AS A THREE COLUMN FORMAT WITH NO LINE BREAKS AND WROTE EVERYTHING IN CAPS LOCK WHILE UTILIZING TAB TO ALIGN AND CENTER TITLES AND MULTIPLE HITS OF RETURN IN LIEU OF DOUBLE-SPACING

 

AND THEN ASKED ME TO PREP IT FOR PRINT

 

Being a disgusting pervert, con and yet not such a good con that he still fell for the Nigerian 419 scam before the internet was a thing where idiots flocked to get fleeced by that garbage; I can forgive that. Formatting idiocy and caps lock on without irony?

 

Unforgivable.

 

There's merit to these studies, though. My generation is one where we've forgone the pad and paper. I may be able to hammer out 100wpm, but I can't write without my wrist and fingers cramping up.

 

 

Even closer on topic than how people type on forums; I have a friend who went to a different school than myself, and they skipped any sort of spelling entirely. "Sound it out," they said, and so the students would then proceed to spell a word phonetically.

 

This went all the way through high school, where a student could successfully(!) argue that because of the basis of how they were taught, they shouldn't be marked off for spelling something wrong. And so it was. He felt degraded by his secondary education, not even worthy enough to pursue college, so he didn't. Even so, we've got a drop-out rate in freshman year in post-secondary education around 30% for male students. That's not a minority issue or something in the water, that's everyone across the board in pre-dominately white, middle class, Tennessee.

 

We're breeding idiots here.

 

Extract me and then nuke the place, please.

 

Meanwhile, I just unlocked "Get a life..." in Unreal Tournament 3 while typing this post. Yay?

Edited by Felonious Monk
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I want to make fun of this, but I've seen the spelling of British teenagers, so I have no room to talk.

 

Yeah, I think ours must be every 1 in 2. I'm sick of seeing people write gawjus instead of gorgeous. I have no time for people who can't spell. Then again, we are teaching kids using phonics now so if you know what that is you'll know there's no hope for British kids being able to learn the alphabet properly, let alone spell. We tried it in the 60's. It failed. It was scrapped. There was fuck all wrong with learning the way we all learnt but we thought it'd be best just to go back to a method that's been proved to damage spelling rather than educate. Another great move by Mr Cameron.

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http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/24985040.jpg

 

lol! I know I hate people who type on forums and you can't understand what they are saying. It's like did you graduate high school..? I am not surprised and to me that is really sad that people can't write proficiently. I feel like I am not in that category, because I actually care about using correct grammar.

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See, if it's an SMS, I can deal with text talk. You have a character limit and if you want to say it all in a single message and not 2, well you save yourself (insert charge for an SMS). :p

 

But to do it on a forum, it should be a bannable offence. Just because you understand it, does not mean everyone else will.

 

Totally agree, I can't stand text talk on a forum and think its just laziness for most people and maybe habit for the younger generation. My spelling is awful and my grammar isn't much better but I do make an effort and it's nice to join a forum with others who do the same.

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