(Spell) Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

Parents, have you ever received a text message from your child who spelled a word such as “necessary” correctly but used the improper form of “too” or “there”? And teachers, have you experienced a similar problem with papers or reports that students have handed in?

These are just a few effects of the present generation’s reliance on spell-checking devices and autocorrect. And these seemingly minor technical slip-ups can have greater implications on a child’s professional future than we realize: “Spelling errors in written communications inevitably diminish the forcefulness of your ideas and tarnish your stature in the eyes of your readers. It’s human nature. We stop reading for a few seconds and shake our heads when we hit that misspelling, and later it’s likely we’ll remember you made that error in your message just as well as we remember the content of the message.” (Halverson) And this is just bad news if we want our kids to be successful!

But to recognize the dangers of spelling and grammar-checking devices is not to condemn technology as a whole. Technology, like laptops, can encourage children to write more (Zheng), which can be beneficial if they already have the linguistic foundations to write with proper spelling and grammar.

So what can we do to develop such foundations? It is a task that must begin in the same stages of educational development as reading and writing. And it is a task that involves strictly human attention. For younger children, this means emphasizing correct spelling. It can almost seem like an exhaustive assignment to give children homework with the instructions to “Write your spelling words 10 times each,” but it is this requirement of repetition for perfection and the physical writing of words that can equip children with the skills they will need throughout life. As students begin to incorporate technology into their schoolwork, or even just start texting on a smartphone, dependence on autocorrect or autofill could be diminished by simply turning off such tools.

Finally, we must place precedence on the art of proofreading. It is too easy to assume, especially among the younger generations who grew up with proofreading technologies, that just because no red squiggly lines show up on our document that there must not be any mistakes.

For a tutorial on proofreading without the use of spellcheck, check out the video below!

“One of the biggest myths about proofreading is that you need a superior brain and a superhuman attention to detail,” Rob Ashton of the Business Writing Channel shares. “Well, guess what? You don’t!” Ashton instructs viewers on how to become good proofreaders, beginning with printing out any typed work.

Bibliography

Halverson, Jim. “Overcome Autocorrect.” inbusinessmag. Sept. 2013. Web

Zheng, Binbin, Mark Warschauer, and George Farkas. "Digital Writing And Diversity: The Effects Of School Laptop Programs On Literacy Processes And Outcomes." Journal Of Educational Computing Research 48.3 (2013): 267-299. Professional Development Collection. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.

Internal Blog: Writing the Wrongs of Spellcheck

We, as students of the autocorrect generation, have noticed an increasing problem among our peers as the use of technology continues to be on the rise. Students today have a noticeable lack of language skills as they rely on technology such as grammar- and spell-checking devices. Even as we type this, we rely on spellcheck to correct even our most minor mistakes. The test scores have proven it: “With spell check off, students with high verbal SAT scores made an average of five auditing errors and students with lower SAT scores made an average of 12.3 errors. With the spell check on, high-scoring SAT students made an average of 16 errors, and low-scoring students made 17” (Sorrentino). So, is this a complete technological-dependence problem? Or do the issues come from somewhere else? Well, according to Dr. Roy Peter Clark, “the root of the problem isn't spell check, it's a lack of three basic behaviors: reading, writing and talking about how language works” (Sorrentino).

There are steps that we need to take to inform educators and those responsible for  teaching children important language skills. We propose a return to the basics, especially for elementary-aged children who are learning foundational writing skills. As studies have shown that spell-check can cause students’ language skills to deteriorate with the passage of time, it is vital to instill such skills before introducing them to spell-check.

One researcher suggests that parents “emphasize the importance of correct spelling by having students complete paper and pen classwork and homework assignments that prevent students from using autocorrect” (University of Alabama at Birmingham). We must emphasize that students should not be completely reliant on spell-checking devices because such devices are fallible, and do not catch all errors (false negatives)—while sometimes catching “errors” (false positives) that are not errors at all. To rely completely on grammar and spell-checking technology, even with exceptional linguistic foundations, causes the human mind to play down to the level of technology (Galletta).  In a way, we are dumbing ourselves down to match only the capabilities of the most recent technology. We must acknowledge that technology has great benefits to supplement our preexisting reading and writing skills but that it cannot compare to the ability and power of the human mind.

Moving forward, parents and educators should be mindful of the deteriorative effects of spell-checking devices and should take active steps to implement “pen and paper” methods of teaching. A shift from technological dependence is necessary in order to enhance and instill the skills that are being increasingly neglected as students rely on spell-checking devices.

Bibliography

Galletta, Dennis F., Alexandra Durcikova, Andrea Everard, and Brian M. Jones. "Does Spell-checking Software Need a Warning Label?" Communications of the ACM 48.7 (2005): 82-86. Harvard. Web.

Sorrentino, Johanna. "Is Spell Check Creating a Generation of Dummies?" Education.com. N.p., 12 Aug. 2010. Web.

University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Could texting and autocorrect affect kids' writing skills?." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 May 2014.