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Oregon will allow students to use spell check on state writing tests in 2011

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moshquerade said:
why not just type it for them too?

you are missing the point. even if the test is for "writing" they still need to learn how to spell correctly. any reason given for allowing this is a cop out.
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Why do they need to learn how to spell correctly? Do your ancient relatives turn over in their graves when you don't go press your on papyrus each time you send a letter? Do they get upset when your email program auto-inserts a signature instead of wax-stamp sealing a letter yourself?

Here's why this is a good thing:

1. 99% of the writing they will ever do for the rest of their life will be spell-checked.
2. They will learn the correct spelling instantly.
3. This test would be to assess writing, not spelling.
4. It more accurately reflects the real world they will be entering.
 
Kids all write in txt msg spk now so all the spellcheckers are going to have to modify their dictionaries.
 
silverpig said:
Why do they need to learn how to spell correctly? Do your ancient relatives turn over in their graves when you don't go press your on papyrus each time you send a letter? Do they get upset when your email program auto-inserts a signature instead of wax-stamp sealing a letter yourself?

Here's why this is a good thing:

1. 99% of the writing they will ever do for the rest of their life will be spell-checked.
2. They will learn the correct spelling instantly.
3. This test would be to assess writing, not spelling.
4. It more accurately reflects the real world they will be entering.
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The real world already has spell checking going on and young people's writing and spelling have only gotten worse. It really reflects poorly on them in the professional world; nobody takes them seriously.

This has nothing but bad idea written all over it. It only encourages stupidity and not knowing how to spell.
 
spidey07 said:
The real world already has spell checking going on and young people's writing and spelling have only gotten worse. It really reflects poorly on them in the professional world; nobody takes them seriously.

This has nothing but bad idea written all over it. It only encourages stupidity and not knowing how to spell.
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Exaggerate much? Oh wait, I forgot who I was talking to.
 
spidey07 said:
The real world already has spell checking going on and young people's writing and spelling have only gotten worse. It really reflects poorly on them in the professional world; nobody takes them seriously.

This has nothing but bad idea written all over it. It only encourages stupidity and not knowing how to spell.
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Agreed.

We had a woman mail a résumé to our workplace, and she misspelled half a dozen words in it. Guess where her resume went? It was filed under "G".

Sure, she should have used spell check herself, but there will come a time when your intelligence, your spelling wisdom, will be put to the test with no spell check to the rescue. Then misspellings will make you will look like your bulb isn't burning very brightly, and could cost you.
 
moshquerade said:
Agreed.

We had a woman mail a résumé to our workplace, and she misspelled half a dozen words in it. Guess where her resume went? It was filed under "G".

Sure, she should have used spell check herself, but there will come a time when your intelligence, your spelling wisdom, will be put to the test with no spell check to the rescue. Then misspellings will make you will look like your bulb isn't burning very brightly, and could cost you.
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Oh right, I forgot about our quarterly company spelling test! Damn! It's probably going to cost me my raise this year! 🙄
 
moshquerade said:
What a cynical bastard you are. :awe:

It cost the woman I mentioned a chance at a job. I need not say more.
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True but she wasn't just a bad speller, she was stupid. I'm a bad speller but I'm not dumb enough to submit an unchecked résumé!
 
I remember being able to use a dictionary for writing tests this just speeds the process up and lets them focus more on the writing ...really don't see what the difference is its WRITING test for grammar not a spelling test, being able to form actual thoughts that are meaningful is more important...This is more like the real world, which education needs to start moving towards anyway...

aka this won't help them on the proper use of too, to, since they are going to spell those correctly...
 
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my initial reaction is that this is absurd, but then I really thought about it

considering the number of people who make spelling errors in emails and forum posts even though it seems like spell check is built into anything and everything these days, I don't mind it as long as it helps enforce that people learn how to spell check even if they don't know how to spell
 
The number of emails that I get every day that lack proper grammar or spelling really drives me up a wall.

They are almost all using Outlook, which has a spell checker, but even that cannot save them. I can see that they want to grade a student primarily on the content of their writing, but honestly, knowing how to spell and type correctly, spell checker or otherwise, is an important life skill, and they should be teaching that.

Eh, at the end of the day I am still happy that I took the 1600pt SAT and not the newer 2400 pointer. I cannot write legibly to save my life.

(I apologize for any mispellings, I do not have spell check on this browser 🙂)
 
Paladin3 said:
I don't agree with allowing spell check on writing tests, but exactly what is the goal of education? I would say the primary goal of education is to teach people to think. If you can't think then you can't communicate in writing well and, weather the computer corrects your spelling or not, you should still fail the test.

Look around these forums. With spell check, grammar check and all the endless resources of the Internet at our disposal, look how often our attempts to effectively communicate via the written word fails.
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whether
 
I'm ok with it, everyone just uses spell check in real life anyway. It's like people saying we shouldn't use calculators in maths, after school you use a calculator anyway...
 
Well technology advances, why shouldn't they use the tools now available to them? The skill set required to be successful in the information age is different to the one needed in the pre-information age. If spell checkers make perfect spelling less relevant (and they do), then the education system should (rightly) place less emphasis on good spelling than it did in the past.
 
I was going to say that it sort of makes sense in that they can better test for a student's ability to create a rational argument, but then I remembered peer-review in ENG 101/102 and that those that could not write common five-letter words correctly also tended to have no logical structure in their thoughts. The solution is to keep these idiots out of college and relegate them to menial labor for the rest of their lives. Everyone knows this.
 
HamburgerBoy said:
I was going to say that it sort of makes sense in that they can better test for a student's ability to create a rational argument, but then I remembered peer-review in ENG 101/102 and that those that could not write common five-letter words correctly also tended to have no logical structure in their thoughts. The solution is to keep these idiots out of college and relegate them to menial labor for the rest of their lives. Everyone knows this.
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Stop stealing TFP's mojo. Not cool, not cool.
 
"I helped my uncle, Jack, off a horse."

"I helped my uncle jack off a horse."


The spell checker in Firefox doesn't seem to have a problem with either one. 🙂
 
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