Definately and English teachers...

[Gwen Barnes <gwen -dot- barnes -at- MUSTANG -dot- COM>]

-> Yes, I'm lucky enough to be one of the intuitive good spellers, and
-> I can diagram a sentence too.  But I'm damned if grammar and spelling
-> are the fundamentals of good communication.  They are the icing on
-> the cake, and I hope I will always be suspicious of sugar coating.
-> We "word people" must train ourselves to be open to the message baked
-> inside the cake.

A counterpoint:

If a professional writer can't be bothered to contemplate the fact that
"definite", "infinite" and "finite" all come from the same root word
and have related meanings, and that writer can't be bothered to spell
the words correctly, why should I trust anything else they have to say,
particularly when complex subject matter is involved?

This is ordinary, everyday language. What happens when the same writer,
out of laziness or ignorance, misspells or misuses technical terms when
explaining a procedure? Does the end-user mix in the wrong chemical,
perhaps? Does the medical technician use the wrong instrument or
procedure on a patient?

Part of our problem in being taken seriously as technical writers is
that our work product is not well enough differentiated from "creative
writing". I sometimes say, with tongue in cheek, that I enjoy writing
science fiction, and software documentation is the closest thing to it.
But I think we do our profession a disservice when we consider proper
spelling the "icing on the cake".

I truly believe that when a person understands what a word *means*, the
spelling then takes care of itself. And if you understand enough about
word origins, not only can you figure out what an unfamiliar word
means, you can take a shot at spelling it, and actually get it right
more times than not.

Cheers,                                                 @DISCLAIMER@
Gwen                                         gwen -dot- barnes -at- mustang -dot- com
MSI * Connecting the world                              805-873-2500