Spell-Check Malady
I was looking over a web site that surveys on-line and freebie spell-checkers and I was struck with the thought that this could be a contribution to the stupidification of the young.
Part of this is direct, that using a spell checker counter inclines one to use words not in the spell-checker’s catalog since one has to either find a word in the catalog that is close to a synonym (how do we measure coherence in synonyms anyway?) or you look the word up in the dictionary (or not) and tell the spell-checker its OK or add to the catalog. Regardless it’s more work if you use words not in the catalog.
And if you use an on-line spell-checker you may not be able to add the word to the catalog.
And spell-checking is a feature that can be turned off, which if you can’t spell worth bupkus means that you misspell a lot of words.
Bottom line: illiteracy by automation.
