Genealogy Chat

Polly,

At the risk of giving an opinion based on 'subjective experiences and observations' I would venture to suggest that your own opinions may be inaccurate: much is being done to help dyslexics. As far as the educational institution that I work in is concerned all students are tested for dyslexia on entry and can be referred for further assessment at any time. If the problem is diagnosed then they are given individual help at considerable cost to the institution.

I would also like to defend my position that people who do not spell accurately are unlikely to transcribe and transmit genealogical data accurately. As IGP points out, it could be due to carelessness and sloppiness; in that case any information sent to another researcher must be suspect. If on the other hand it is a symptom of one of the forms of dyslexia that makes letter recognition difficult then any names and dates may be inaccurately rendered.

I did not use the term "dyslexia" in my original posting because I do not know the reason for the unorthodox spelling and grammar we see so often, and I believed that they were more the result of carelessness than of a psychological condition. Clearly some people believe that most of the inaccuracies seen here result from dyslexia. They may be right, but as such errors are so prevalent on these boards then we would have to accept that dyslexia in the norm.

Peter

18 odd years ago I worked ( voluntary ) in a school in a very deprived area -

I used to have small groups of children (10 to 11 years of age ) at my home - teaching them how to prepare and cook basic foods

One day the children starting about birthdays - and I asked one 11 years old girl - when her birthday was

She replied she did not know - Do you know what month - I asked her - No I dont -

Well do you know if it is in the Summer or Winter - No I dont

It soon transpired that she did not know -

How many days in a week - how many months in a year - the names of the months - or the order

Neither Easter or Christmas - or her birthday - having never experienced any at her home

Yet she had attended school every day - ( her parents putting her outside the house at 8.00 am every day - school days or not )

Some children have parents, schools and teachers that all fail them

From that time onwards I tried never to judge anyone

Irene

I was watching an article on BBC Breakfast today re special help in school for students that are underachieving. It was mentioned that around one in a hundred i.e. 1% students have some form of special need requiring additional support. So, a tiny tiny minority.

As far as I am concerned, one of the biggest failings in the education system is the acceptance of sloppiness as being the norm. How many times do you hear that spelling isn't important any more, for example.

A few years ago I was involved with the recruitment of school leavers for clerical positions in the financial services industry. The minimum requirement was for C's and above in GCS English and Maths. In practice only those with a least one B or A managed to get through the first cull. We then gave them a test in writing a simple business letter and adding up a column of figures without the use of a calculator.

The results were horrendous. When tackled about poor spelling and grammar A grade students mentioned that they had not been picked up on this at school. When asked to correct their work most managed to do it properly. Hence my use of the words lazy ans sloppy.....!

"subjective experiences and observations"

Charles Darwin, for example?

Well!! i've been inactive for a couple of days since i posted my very teeny weeny rant....(.have been interested in much more important issues..like staying up till 4.30 am to make sure that all the Chilean Miners got out..)...and i see that those who know me have responded in the way i would have expected them to do..Thank you.......
For some other replies the word Pompous comes to mind......
..Oh and by the way..I am a retired Special Needs Teacher with many years experience.....love to you all!!

Derek

I find reading all capitals very difficult indeed, and do ignore most such postings.


I had cataracts corrected back in 2001, before that I found it difficult to read ...... but what I did is increase the size of the text on MY screen ..... that was (and is) so easy to do, but did not affect anyone else.


I have sometimes re-typed a posting that was posted without any punctuation and which I could not understand ....... but I do try to do it gently


The problem with bad spelling becomes an issue ONLY when the forename and/or surname of the ancestor is misspelt ................... I think it fair then to point out that there is this spelling vs that one .................. after all I might have spent ages looking for one spelling when it was in fact the other.


I ignore bad spelling and bad grammar otherwise ....... even though it annoys me because I was an editor in my working life, but I'm also aware that many people cannot spell, and/or did not have the advantages that I had



............ and I am also aware that I make spelling mistakes myself! And that is despite the fact that I proofread what I type 95% of the time before posting it!

I do try to understand what someone has typed, even to the extent of saying it out loud, as I did the other night!



sylvia

I read the boerds most days but I do not add to them becous of my poor spelling. Some people have had more chanc of education than others. I am dislexic but it was not diagnosed for many years after left school, also I had to leave school before I was 14 to bring in some monney to feed the family. I feel if I put any thing on the boards i would be shot down. I did go on to make machines that sold allover the world and are still working after 40 years.
I left school during the war.

Bernard

You add to the boards when ever you want - this site is for all people who have an interest in Genealogy -

I agree with you - we may have all be born in the same way - but we all had different childhoods -

It good to see people who left school during the war - some 60 years ago - have mastered technology and are using it every day

So well done Bernard

And keep on Posting

Irene

But Bernard, your message is not a problem at all - it has sentences and full stops, uses capital letters in the right place, and the words you have mis-spelled are easy to interpret. You are certainly not in the same category as many other posters on here whose messages are so much more difficult to read and understand.

Post when you wish, you will not be shot down, and if you have ancestors in Derbyshire, I know I speak for Derek when I say he will be more than pleased to help some who writes as clearly as you do.

Good luck.

(Different Patricia)

Spell Checker

spell checker isn't always helpful if you can't spell -

where were ware wear
to too two
herd heard
their there they're
prefer proffer
right write rite
whether weather
aloud allowed
etc

I respond to threads whether written in capitals or not. Yes I find these posts difficult to read but I see them as someone asking for help and am only too happy to help if I am able.

We are from all walks of life and even though there are some really good special needs teachers, there are also some who are not so good.

I find these threads unhelpful because they put off some from posting who are self conscious about their written English.

TootyFruity


Well said --- see Bernard·s post ----

perhaps some people should be looking in a mirror - not on a "board"

O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us


Irene

The question of grammar - one of my daughters, now in her late forties, said she never even heard the word "grammar" until she started French!

l'm sure many of my generation will remember "parsing" - dissecting each word and phrase in a sentence and having to explain it, e.g. "adjective qualilfying the noun x" - though the current generation don't seem to have heard the word! May be a tedious exercise, butl you subconsciously did absorb how to construct a written exercise.

There was also "precis" - I remember my OH saying he would rather ask that of staff than any of the curious intelligence tests he was asked to inflict on them by his head office.

Please don't anyonyone let this thread put them off posting. We have had all this before, people write things in a certain way often because it helps them (capitals if they are visually impaired, wrong spelling because they are dyslexic etc).

My posts are often grammatically bad because I am typing them in a hurry and don't touch type or review before submitting, and I have A level English Grammar/literature.
Nobody should be made to feel uncomfortable for the way they post.

I don't remember parsing but it may be we called it something different, I do remember having to work out clauses, main, subordinate etc. And I used to love precis.

...Then there's the point that not everyone has either learnt to type, or wants to bother to!! I use a computer every day at work and still do some specatcular typo's!!

...I have a problem with 'O's - my finger tends to 'slide' over it and not press it hard enough.
....bit difficult when you work for a County council!!! LOL

Maggie,

You have made me smile about a problem with 'O's.

When I first started using the computer my sons always grumbled at me about using 'O' for zero. Back in the dark ages, when I was taught to type, on clunky old typewrters, there was no zero, so we were told to use 'O'. I am getting used to it now!

Elisabeth

Ann in Glos - you are quite right, I didn't intend to express annoyance with any contributions to these forums - but this thread did set me off on a - possibly old-fogeyish - train of thought. I do get irritated by bad grammar in business letters - the whole business of thinking how my teachers would never have let me get away with that!

Speaking of capitals - my typing problem with computers is that the caps and caps lock key are the opposite to the old typewriter keyboards l learned on - I can do several lines of capitals before I look up and notice!!

Oh Elizabeth, I am for ever having to retype when I see a whole paragraph of capitals. It is so easy not to notice when the caps is down, I catch it with my nail often when typing 'A'

I have certain words that I cannot spell correctly first time ......


hosue, Vancovuer ........and others with similar vowel

notice it's the "o" and "u" that I cannot type one after the other???

cna is another "favourite" one of mine!


Because of this, I use the programme for automatic correction of common mis-spellings a lot when in Word ....... but it doesnt seem to work when on the internet.


I taught myself to type on a Selectric electric typewriter back in January 1968

.......... I was working in Texas, my boss went away on a 6 week collecting trip into Mexico. The intention was that he would begin to send back samples after the first week, and I would process these.

Unfortunately, he only found ONE sample during the whole trip ...... and I had more than 5 weeks to fill with something after completing various things.


I decided that it would be useful to know how to type ............. I can type quite quickly, but it is only 2 or 3 fingers, and I have to look at the keys while doing it.


I have therefore got into the habit of carefully reading back and editing everyhitng that I have typed.


It's when I don't do that because I'm in a hurry, that I post badly typed messages.



Mis-spellings and grammar don't bother me ... I can usually make out what is meant.

However, I do think that proper names (of people or geographical areas) should be carefully checked by everyone before posting to ensure that they are spelled correctly.



sylvia