The signs of dyslexia go beyond abilities of decoding symbols. The International Dyslexia Association covers some of the other common problems people with dyslexia encounter including memorizing number facts, learning a foreign language, and correctly doing math operations. Check out their website for signs of dyslexia among adults, very young children, and older children.
They also have a frequently asked questions page if you are interested in learning more.
If you have hired, or if you are, a content manager or editor whose native language is not English, please read this report from Search Engine Watch. The report spells out how misspellings can hurt online sales, stating that it’s not important if the author isn’t concerned with the spelling. What really matters is the website visitor’s opinion. Specifically alarming is is the fact that your visitors will equate good spelling and grammar with legitimacy.
Accurate spelling and good grammar are equated with legitimacy, if not consciously then subconsciously. Some of us may be more aware of this sentiment when it is expressed in the negative: Bad spelling and bad grammar are cause for suspicion. For example, what’s the first clue a piece of email from a stranger is a scam? Many people would say it’s the bad spelling and grammar.
The article is also helpful by providing tips for avoiding such costly mistakes.
- Don’t rely on spell checkers. The above heading passes a spell check with flying colors. Spell checkers can be a big help, especially those that flag errors as you type, but they just don’t have the human intelligence required to know which words you should be using.
- Use multiple human editors. I don’t know any serious writers who believe they can reliably copy edit their own work. As the writer you tend to see what you think you wrote, not what characters ended up on the page. In a pinch, “multiple human editors” can mean the person writing the copy and one other person, but three sets of eyes are better than two.
- Make sure your graphics people use the spellchecker in Photoshop for any images that include words. They need to use it before rasterizing the text layer. Editing typos in flattened image files is a real pain so check before you save to JPEG, GIF, or PNG.
If you are an ESL student, you should know what your instructors’ goals are when grading. Some might focus more on content rather than on accuracy. If your instructor looks more at content and less on grammatical accuracy, ask them what areas you can improve. There is always room for improvement whether it is working on native English phrasing, choosing the right diction to present the intended meaning, or using the most appropriate verb tense.
Lose and loose are commonly misspelled. There are often mispronounced, too, so maybe this will help:
The ‘s’ in lose (a verb) is pronounced with a /z/ sound. Lose means that you have misplaced something. Example: Where did you lose your keys? If I knew where I lost them, I would still have them!
The ‘s’ in loose (an adjective) is pronounced with a /s/ sound. Loose means the opposite of tight. Example: I have to tie my shoe because my shoestrings are loose.
Here are some fun facts about English:
- The letters H, I, O, and X are the only letters that look the same if you flip them upside down or view them from behind.
- “Queueing” is the only word with five consecutive vowels.
- The only city in the United States whose name is spelled using only vowels is Aiea, Hawaii.
- The longest one-syllable words are “screeched” and “strengths”.
The full list is here at Brain Candy. Lists like this are good ice breakers for the first day of class or to have at the ready if you are babysitting or substitute teaching.
Are you looking for a quick way to get your students to practice writing? Give them cards with a proverb or cliche on it and have them interpret the meaning in their own words, in paragraph form, of course. Not only will this activity give your students more writing practice, it can serve to lead a discussion on why to avoid cliches.
Here are some cliches to get you started:
By the way, if you see a cliche you whose meaning you are uncertain of, try entering the word or phrase in Urban Dictionary’s search bar for the meaning.
If you use the preposition through, you are indicating a temporary passage. If you’re going through something, you usually won’t stay there. If you use the preposition into, you’re indicating entry to something. If you are going into something, your intention is to stay for a while.
These prepositions imply movement from one place to another. So, when a ball flies through a window into someone’s room, it flies through the window briefly, and stays in the room until someone finds it.
Examples with through:
Examples with into:
Oxford English Dictionary has decided to conserve LOL and OMG in its 2011 edition. The expressions depict not only our recent use of concise communication, but also demonstrate our tech savvy. Mark Brown from Wired writes of other terms:
There’s also dot-bomb, used to describe web concepts that fizzle out and die. That one derives from the soaring, stock-market dot-com bubble of the late ’90s, and the eventual bubble burst in the early 2000s. Ego-surfing, another new addition, means searching for your own name online.
Do you think these terms are worth saving? Do they describe real English, or have they stripped the language of its academic and professional integrity?
Here was the comment from Friday 1-14-11:
there use to be a better one what happen to it
A corrected version might look like this:
There used to be a better one. What happened to it?
Here’s the comment from 1-7-11:
she is so pretty, i love this song, she will launch her new album soon, i saw it their pocodot, profile, great site, better than facebook
If this person were in my class I would recommend that they
A corrected version might look like this:
She is so pretty, and I love this song. She will launch her new album soon, which I saw on their Pocodot profile. Pocodot is a great site; it’s better than Facebook.
The semicolon is optional. I just felt like being fancy.
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