Proper spelling - is it that important?

There's a reason spelling counts: standardization.

If everyone just goes about spelling words however he or she pleases, then we lose a consistent foundation for our language. Vernacular changes, and alternate spellings are often grandfathered into academic acceptability, but this is something that should happen through time, not the abandonment of structure altogether.

Words are tools to convey ideas. When we accept a proper spelling, we're effectively choosing which particular tool represents the concept of, say, "cat." We insert that tool into context and everyone involved recognizes it - "I know that idea!", everyone says to himself. Though different spellings can still function as these tools, they lose some efficacy, we're forced to pause and examine the tool we've been given, as though it was produced in some foreign country that operates under different laws. Maybe the tool will fit, maybe it won't. God help us if the word it means to be is a homonym; context doesn't always fill in the gaps.

Standardization holds each of us accountable to the same rules. Without them, we could be as cavalier as we wished and chalk all misinterpretations up to reader error, not authorial stupidity. It also allows us to observe relative levels of intelligence; an employer does not wish to hire morons. It is not the employer's duty to lower the hiring requirements; it's the applicant's responsibility to achieve competency!

Basically, if you can't spell, go work at McDonald's. Poor English skills don't seem to bother them.



Jam it back in, in the dark.