Spelling mistakes - should these be pointed out on social media?
Watch this postI know there are some people who have trouble with spellings and on another forum I saw comments on people being quite rude about this. I was picked on for misspelling something on Facebook; I didn’t know who the lady was and felt quite surprised to have a comment made.
Am I being unreasonable?
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I was a teacher and conscious that some children really struggled with such things ad constantly pointing out errors was reducing self esteem, Our school, and many did this, adopted a policy of writing a sentence that included the misspelt word and, if it was reasonable for the child to learn it, included it on a homework list for the week. Many adults are put off communicating in writing because of these finger pointing people.
It's irritating and rude of people to behave this way, but there are those who just love to demonstrate their knowledge of such things by ridiculing others, especially when it can be done anonymously. They're bullies, plain and simple.
There are times when correct spelling is important, but I do not feel that relaxed and friendly communication on social media is one of them.
The problem I do have is when young people use these same abbreviations for formal communications such as on CV's and job applications, I'm told I'm old fashioned as everyone does it. Well, not everyone because I don't, and I would have difficulty in shortlisting someone for a post if I couldn't understand what they had written, although I would excuse a spelling error if the message was clear!