Programming Coffee

Beeing Proffeshunel

In the past couple weeks, I have realized the importance of being able to complete minor tasks that many people take for granted. One of those tasks happens to be spelling. I can spell, it comes naturally. Evidently my young childhood education consisted of the right formula of phonics, vocabulary, spelling, and language structure to give me the ability to spell. Why do I think spelling is so important? It honestly doesn't matter in a non-formal, friendly environment where you have the liberty to read into the semantics of the word. However, in more formal, professional environments spelling should be an upmost priority. You wouldn't entrust your health to a doctor who couldn't remember the names of common illnesses (even though we do entrust our health to doctors who cannot spell, or at least don't have good penmanship). I find myself more often these days, correcting the spelling of friends, colleages, and publications. I am not what you would consider a spelling nazi (even though I am leaning in that direction), because I know I have my own grammatical faults: the lack of diverse punctuation my documents have, the excessive punctuation that my documents have, my inability to speak a vocabulary larger than 50 words, etc. Despite my own faults, I do find it unforgiving to be sent a professional document laced with misspellings, transposed sentences, and poor sentence structure. Remind you that my *acceptability bar* set for the english language is set fairly low, so if it bothers me, imagine how an english major (or other comperable literary type) would react to the literary crud that I come across. My agitation is worsened these days by the mere fact of the availability of spell-check. It is a feature that most all products (word processors, email programs) have these days. I know it is a pain to use a spell-checker when you can spell, but when you can't? I would think that the spell-check would be placed on a pedestal by the poor spelling community. I however, have a false assumption on this matter, as people still fail to utilize such a wonderful tool. It all boils down to one question: will our nation lower the educational bar to incorporate the poor spellers, or will the poor spellers have to work harder to meet the standards. Sadly enough, I believe the former will come to pass.