How important is correct spelling 2 u? (From News Shopper)

How important is correct spelling 2 u?

3:25pm Tuesday 19th February 2008 in

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Hello everyone, after reading some of the comments going back and forth lately about incorrect spelling, punctuation and grammar, it got me thinking.
How important is it for words to be spelt correctly if they can still be understood by the reader?

As a young child we were all taught the correct way to spell and put sentences together.

But with today's generation where 'text speak' has become standard, it made me think a little more.

I personally think that the way people sound when they speak is very important.

It is always good to sound polite and well-mannered because it gives a good impression.

When it comes to writing there are so many abbreviations which can be used to shorten words and make it quicker to write, such as the word 'you' written as 'u'.

But does this make a person come across a certain way?

I am only 21-years-old and therefore have grown up in a generation where writing 'u' for 'you' had become standard, well that was until I wrote lots of different essays for my GCSE's, A-levels and NCTJ (my journalism course).

I found myself sometimes writing the words in the shortened text form as I had become accustomed to them.

Even today I find myself having to stare at the screen sometimes realising I have completely written a word incorrectly.

It seems the generation of which I am part of, has a hard time dealing with the correct way to spell things.

When I was younger I would write a text using the shortened words simply to save time, not for any status symbol or because I was too stupid to write the word correctly.

I (like many others) had a book which was dedicated to text language.

It seems some people deem others who use this way of writing as either uneducated or just pain silly but that is not always the case.

For myself personally, I know there are inappropriate times to use 'text language'.

When it comes to writing articles for example, I check and double check my spellings, and I always feel silly if I have misspelt a word.

But when I am sending a text message I will write it as short and as quickly as I can.

I can read and write shorthand, I can understand text language and I also use English as it should be used.

If I rite lyk this then u guys can c & still read wot I am ritin, but I guess it may b hard'a 4 u 2 work out & undastand.

I guess it looks a bit silly as well, but the thing is, you just read that sentence and possibly understood it.

So do you think it really matters if people use the shortened version of words?

I do not think it would be correct to write people's names or places any other way in which they should be written.

Why do you think people get so wound up with others when they do misspell words or use "text speak"?

Do you think it is a generation thing?

Some people are even going one step further and using some sort of ‘gangsta’ or street language than just text speak.

They spell things like yOoUu, putting loads of extra letters and uppercase letters into simple words.

It must be quite hard to write like that let alone read it!

I personally think that spelling and grammar is very important and always will be, but why do people get so affected by others who use language differently?

I expect to get some quite controversial comments from this blog.

So go-ahead & tell me wot u fink!

Vicki :-)