Typo online check how to#

Previously, written material went through a process of copy-editing and proofreading to strip out errors, but now online content goes up very quickly and there are often mistakes, says Horobin, author of Does Spelling Matter? and How English Became English.

Typo online check how to#

You’ve still got to learn how to spell,” he says.

“There are all sorts of problems that are going to come up if you think you’ve got a completely fail-safe method. “Siri does that the best.”Īutocorrection is probably why an official White House press statement recently called for 'peach' in the Middle East, rather than ‘peace’, says Simon Horobin, professor of English language and literature at the University of Oxford. “If you look at the development of technologies, whether it’s quill pens to fountain pens to ball point pens to keyboards, the goal is to go faster because you want to match the pace of the ideas in your head,” says Trubek. New technologies, such as Apple’s Siri function, also contribute to the rising apathy toward correct spelling. “Spell-check, as most of us know, sometimes corrects spelling to a different word than intended if the writing is not later proofread, this computer-created error goes unnoticed.” But the new number one error in student writing is now using the ‘wrong word’, explains Trubek. Spell-checking tools may seem like the answer, but they also create a new problem, warns Anne Trubek, an expert in new writing technologies and founder of Belt Publishing in the US state of Ohio.Ī long-term comparison of errors in university students’ essays in the US found that spelling used to be the most common mistake.

It has the potential to wreck customer relationships and even ruin your chance of finding love online.īut if no-one is immune and technology is tending to make bad spelling commonplace – take the rise of ‘text speak’ abbreviations for example – is perfect orthography no longer of value? And, is it OK to misspell words? Poor spelling can also create confusion, a loss of clarity and meaning and in extreme cases it can cost millions in missed sales and job opportunities. The humble typo not only has the power to make us appear less intelligent than we are. While some spelling mistakes are harmless and funny, many aren’t.