Comments on: Spelling and the fear of new technology

By: alan

alan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:56:42 +0000

Dave – I agree. Every change in communications and media has something of a knock on effect. I’m sure handwriting skills are worse than ever since students type most of their stuff now. I’ve even heard teenage girls saying, “LOL!” out loud, which just astounded me!

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:13:18 +0000

I think there is a small bit of truth to the idea that text speak has a negative impact on students’ spelling, but I don’t think the survey cited in the article is an example of that phenomenon.

By: Leticia

Leticia — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:26:11 +0000

LOL – *blushes* thanks Al

By: alan

alan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:19:51 +0000

Don’t ya love the internet.

Leticia – editor extraordinaire.

By: Reay

Reay — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:58:57 +0000

Sorry, my bad. Still waking up. Adverb is what I was looking for (says the blushing writer). Subtly, is it? No “e”s at all, then… yeah, that would be enough to throw off word searches.

Thanks, all.

By: alan

alan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:41:34 +0000

Good point. Subtle is only an adjective.

By: Leticia

Leticia — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:40:20 +0000

No – subtle *is* an adjective.

Its derivatives are:

subtleness – noun
subtly – adverb

By: alan

alan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:38:16 +0000

Reay – children’s is right. See Tish’s explanation above.

Not sure what you mean about the adjective of subtle. Subtle can be an adjective…?

By: Reay

Reay — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:32:37 +0000

I think “children’s” may be right, but admit it’s one of those things that I have to check on every time I use it. Think I would’ve done alright on the list of words, though. Then again, I’m a writer, so I’d hope I’d do moderately well, anyway.

One that’s had me stumped for a while: the adjective of “subtle”. Any ideas?

By: alan

alan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:08:05 +0000

Garlic and wooden stakes on standby.