What happened to our education system? Everyone on this site speaks English. Why is it that there are so few that can spell it correctly?

1) Answerbag has a large community. Anyone can participate, as long as they have access to a computer and they can type (at least more or less). People who are basically illiterate could participate.

Further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy


2) Answerbag has a low level of censorship. In the contrary to some professional sites, where such questions could eventually be suppressed or edited, questions are just presented as they were asked.


3) The users do only have the possibility to correct their errors in the first 20 minutes after posting questions and answers. At the moment, you can also not correct comments.


4) Although it is generally not very well accepted on Answerbag (in the contrary to some other Internet forums), some users are posting their questions in Internet slang or use SMS slang. Those are special dialects of the English language that are widespread in Internet or in SMS communication.

Further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_slang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_language


5) Not all Answerbag users come from the US. Some users come from countries with a worse education system and some are not native English speakers.

"Answerbag.com users come from these countries:
50.6% United States
11.9% India
7.3% United Kingdom
4.1% Canada
2.5% Pakistan"
Source and further information:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/answerbag.com


6) That you can speak certainly does not mean that you can write correctly.
Punctuation is also important. Some people don't know very well the rules of punctuation, or they just write like they are speaking.
For instance the following sentences don't have the same meaning:
"Why is it that there are so few that can spell it correctly?"
"Why is it that there are so few that can spell 'it' correctly?"


7) It is possible that the education system today does not have the same priorities as 50 years ago. For instance, you could be able to go through elementary education without learning spelling and grammar perfectly.

Texting plays a part....how large a part I have no idea. But I never (except for this example) use "lol" or any other abbreviation/shortcut/condensed version. Why? Because I love words, respect them and so I try to use them correctly. Do I screw up sometimes? Of course. Not intentionally but I drop words, misspell them, use the wrong syntax. It doesn't matter how many times I read something before I post it, I often find it was not perfect. Then there are those who don't care at all. I care but I still screw up. Happy Sunday to you! :)

Don't forget there are numerous people on this site from areas of the world in which English is not native.

Some can't spell..
Some have no idea of grammar..
Some are lazy..
Some think text speak is cool..
Some make typing errors..

Apathy. Few actually care enough to be precise in their questions and answers.

I don't know, I thought "it" was a pretty easy word to spell.

I think some are lazy, some don't know better, some don't care, some think it's cool to write incorrectly, and some don't notice their mistakes until it's past the time they're able to edit their answer.

Ask Bush why is your children not learning

One of the things I have figured out; This is the "WORLD WIDE WEB", a lot of people DON'T speak english. The computer translate into there dialect, And visa-versa.
But, I have seen what you are talking about, in the abbreviations of words. I think they are just trying to be 'cool'. I just pass them questions/answers by, I don't even try to understand them.
As for spelling, I am a poor speller, but, I have a dictionary, right beside me.
Also, I'm a 2 finger typer, so I make mistakes, SO,
I always proof read my Q/As before I post them.

Spell what correctly?

I couldn't agree with you more. There's lots of illiterate people with access to computers and they aren't excluded from becoming members of this or any other
website. In addtion to find it annoying, I also equate excessive use of abbrevation
to laziness or a way to gloss over the fact that they can't spell correctly. And then
there are some who think ignorance is a bliss.

I am not very good at spelling and grammar.
Before I write a question I use google to check spelling.
I have to do this very often and it just becomes a habbit. When I think about it, it is very annoying. Some people do not mean to spell incorrectly but just do not have good English.
I'm good and educated in other ways. I never was any good at writing. Doesn't mean people cannot participate in discussions on AB.
The things I read on here , even with bad grammar are mostly all understood.

And remember, these are the best of the crop-there are those who are so bad in their writing, or think so, that they do not write out their Qs & As here. One big problem is the whole word method of reading, known under various names: it is so insidious that it's difficult to believe it to be anything other than a deliberate attack on our educational system. Alexander Luria, Russian psychologist & neurosurgeon praised Kurt Lewin& his application of this method in the US. Luria pointed out Pavlov's experiments in which dogs were trained through stimulus-response methods & were then given 2 stimuli simultaneously: this caused high stress in the dogs. Humans, however are not so easily stressed. After learning the whole word method to the extent of reading ~30 words per minute, the introduction of the correct method of phonics causes extreme stress in humans. The problem is that individuals need to react in 2 totally different ways in the 2 methods.

Abbreviations came with the texting age as it is faster to text in abbreviations. With the keypads being smaller it made sense to shorten words.

Some people on here are from other countries and are still in the process of learning English so they do not always spell correctly or use proper grammar.

For me I am a terrible speller. I was never taught phonics in school as we were part of a "new" learning system. It failed miserably. The teachers in my country went to the government and asked for phonics to be reinstated in schools.

Most of the time I can see the word is spelt incorrectly but I just can't figure out what is the correct spelling. I use spell check and it works most of the time.

I type fast and do not reread my work most of the time. Sometimes I go back and look at my answers or question and realize I have used there instead of their. Or forgot to add an ing to my words. Fast paced world you know.

I never got the hang of grammar either. I'm not in a job that requires it so I don't care to learn it. It was boring the first time around and I have better things to do with my time.

"it" doesn't seem to be the word misspelled, but you are right, and it is getting worse every day! When i went to school, a kid could be "flunked" and have to take that year over again, that isn't allowed anymore. A teacher can't put red marks on a kids test papers, because the kid "might feel bad". I worked on the intercom system in a local school district recently, and you wouldn't believe what kids get away with these days!

What are you talking about?
Their are no misspelings, or grammer problems that I've sean.

Are you sure that it is just that they cannot /type/ it correctly?

I know, it is incredible to me that on a site in which people ask questions, there are so many who seem to be actually incapable of forming a question. I have seen so many statements with a question mark after them, along these lines - "My cat is hungry?"