Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
My guest this week has been Andrew Pudewa, who’s the director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Andrew, we’ve been talking about spelling. But since so much writing is done on computer these days, is poor spelling really a significant problem?

Andrew Pudewa: Well, a lot of writing is done on computers. I suspect the problem will get even worse because the technology trend is going to move even away from typing and more into just talking to the computer.

But on the other side, there is a definite move towards writing on paper. We know that the SAT, the ACT, the GED, the GRE, the TOEFL exam, all of these require a handwritten on-paper essay. There’s one thing we know. When you pick up a piece of paper written, and it has a lot of spelling errors on it, the impression is not good. Even if the content and the ideas are good, it looks fairly immature, illiterate, it looks weak.

It’s hard to overcome the impression that bad spelling can create. So I don’t think it’s a lost skill at all. And who knows, I mean, we may see that swing back to basics skills continue.

Mike:
Andrew, it’s good to hear that there’s hope for poor spellers and it’s also good to hear that there’s a need to become a good speller. Thanks so much for joining me this week! I’m Mike Farris.