To think that correcting someone's spelling on a thread is just bloody rude!

[utterMadness]

And that it doesn't make you look big or clever, but like a smug pedantic twat.

Have just seen someone be pulled up on spelling on another thread who is dislexic.

People are unable to spell/write gramatically correct for various reasons.

Just because you can, doesn't make you better than them.

[MamaG]

[expatinscotland]

parp!

[TrillianAstra]

Do people not want to know how to spell correctly then?

[sethstarkaddersmum]

I doubt people who correct spelling do so to make themselves look big or clever or because they think they are better people than the bad spellers. But if I mis-spelled or punctuated I would want to be corrected so perhaps people who correct spelling do so to be helpful.

[lowlibido]

Depends on the tone of "voice". Someone corrected me of the pronunciation of a place name yesterday. I was grateful to them - stopped me sounding like an arse in future.

[WitchyWooWoo]

tbh a lot of it is quite petty. someone will post with a long problem, obviously desperate for advice and the first post will be a spelling correction. pretty unhelpful and quite nasty actually.

oh and utter its dyslexic

[AgentZigzag]

I think pulling up people on their spelling is often just used to have a not so crafty dig at them.

If their spelling and grammar is that bad that you can't understand them, fair enough, but I saw the post you're talking about, and the OP was trying to put her down IMO (not literally )

Can't stand twats when they're being pedantic

[chipmonkey]

YANBU and for the record I was always the best at spelling in my class. I know some people much more clever than I am who can't spell to save their lives. It is rude, pedantic and condescending to correct someone's spelling on a thread.

[Ronaldinhio]

grammatically

[oldernowiser]

Shouldn't that be dyslexic?

[MagalyZz]

It depends. If they're being a bit stroppy about something else then it's impossible to resist.

I am not very good at maths or science subjects and I've no valuable business qualifications to speak of. I would never say to anybody "why do you need to calculate differentials?! waste of time! doesn't matter!" But, the one thing I am fairly good at is routinely dismissed as totally unimportant by people who can't spell or string a sentence together! I'm supposed to continue to acknowledge their strengths though!

[chibi]

Depends

if someone is making a big song and dance about their fluency in a language, how superior that language is, and yet manages to mispell some fairly basic words, then yes, they do deserve to be pulled up on it

[Earlybird]

I am enough of a 'pedantic twit' that I often look up a word if I am unsure how to spell it.

And, spellcheck (if that is how you spell it! ) is readily available for those who have spelling issues.

I think a lot of people just don't care....which is a minor issue for those of us who do care.

[expatinscotland]

my husband has dyslexia. very severe, he is only functionally literate.

so does DD1, who even at the age of nearly 7 has major problems learning to read.

i correct both his and her spelling.

they don't mind.

it's not done to be big or clever, but so what he writes is comprehensible, because it sometimes isn't, particularly to older people or in situations like forms or job applications.

[porcamiseria]

AGREE i often mispell as I type so fast

patronising and rude

[MagalyZz]

how do you turn on spell check?

[AgentZigzag]

Early, I look up words if I'm not sure I've spelt them correctly, but to start telling other posters they're crap is completely diiferent.

[wannaBe]

people correct me on my spelling and sometimes it does wind me up because I am all too aware that my spelling is crap.

One of the reasons is because I never see words written out - ever. Have been reading contracted (i.e. shortened) braille since I was seven and since the age of computers most reading is done on the pc so it is all spoken via screenreader.

But it depends on the context.

A lot of the times I've been corrected have been times when someone has disagreed with me/not liked what I've had to say/there was a time when i responded to a particular emotive topic on a thread, not harshly but to give advice and someone responded with a spelling correction. Certainly not appropriate in the context of the thread.

There are other times when people have corrected my spelling in a light-hearted way and that's fine, but the petty ones where people are trying to point-score or deflect from the argument are just petty.

[bibbitybobbityhat]

On the whole I agree with you op.

But if someone was being an uber bitch to me and happened to make a spelling mistake in the course of her rant I would take great pleasure in pointing out the error.

Mainly I don't feel the need to stick my oar in.

I could almost make an exception for all the rogue apostrophe's though. They make me want to scream!!! and are such a common error on here that I sometime's go all Daily Mail and worry about the state of our education system.

[maxybrown]

I certainly wasn't making a big song and dance about being fluent in my language at all. It was just a dig, in fact it was more about THAT person making a song and dance

[stickylittlefingers]

I'm guessing that there are lot of people on here who write for a living (not so much as authors, I mean as lawyers or other jobs where what you write is largely what you "are" to clients) and, putting aside the idiots who spell check to score points (which, I agree, is totally sad and reflects far more on them and their argumentative skills) - for those of us who spend our lives deciding how best to write things and proofreading our own and others' work, spelling and grammatical errors have a tendency to:
(a) look like stupidity (we're worried we will make an error and look stupid ourselves);
(b) stick out a mile because we're conditioned to that; and
(c) make us get our red pen out (or at least metaphorically).

In the end, though, people like me should just get over themselves!!

[SanctiMoanyArse]

YANBU

My spelling is great- used to read dcitionary for fun (????? odd kid) but my typing is shite and I now refer people to www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/770773-Peachy-wants-to-apologise-for-her-typingthis becuase I cannot Be Arsed.

On here it seems to often be done with a subtext of 'I am considerably more intelligent than you / you are a chav and I think you would be better off on www.hunsworld.com' and that's just nastiness.

[Earlybird]

Some of the spelling on here is outrageously bad - far beyond the 'hmm, can't remember if that word has one p or two' sort of mistakes.

And in some instances (not just on Mumsnet), the writer's credibility is sidelined by poor spelling.