There's an interesting article in today's Washington Post Magazine on some informal (and some quite formal) research into the reasons why intelligent, well-educated people sometimes can't spell worth a hoot.
In a nutshell: latent dyslexia coupled with ingenious coping mechanisms which simulate the neurological capabilities that most people acquire while young. Situated in the recesses of the left occipito-temporal area of the brain, these capabilities allow them to spell well, consistently -- they recognize the word, have a feel for it, for what its variants would be. That feel is lacking in some people, leading to the inability to extrapolate likely spelling from what they know about the word in other forms, or about other, similar words. Some of these people develop coping mechanisms which, at least in the case of the writer of this article, work well enough to be indistinguishable from 'the real thing'. But when pressed to function quickly -- which, as a professional, deadline-driven, writer, he is -- sometimes those coping strategies break down. As he says in the article, an inability to spell well on demand is not the usual path to success for someone in his field.
Interesting and thought-provoking stuff.
2 comments:
Yes, I find that interesting.
Have you read Eats, Shoots and Leaves? If not I think you might enjoy it.
What's so difficult about putting the ' in the right place?
Nothing at all, to most people, I'd suspect. But analogous to math phobia as viewed by a math-comfortable person.
Nice to hear from you. I'd started to wonder if I was talking to myself -- again.
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