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Adrika Rahim Professor Jan Rieman English 1101 30 January 2014 In An Autocorrect Generation, Does Spelling Still Matter? And your word is subtle Subtle. Okay, S-U-D-D-L-E. Subtle. Im sorry, that is incorrect. This is my own personal connection to Thomas Hurley. When I was in the 6th grade, we had a class spelling bee, and my make-or-break word was subtle. I had no idea how to spell it, so I just sounded it out. I knew the word, but never had to write it anywhere, so I never learned how it was spelt. In this day and age, everything we have to write can get autocorrected. In this Jeopardy situation of Thomas Hurley, the young child didnt win the final jeopardy question just because he spelt the word emancipation wrong. It wasnt even that it was completely wrong, he just added an extra t in the word. Because of this small error, Thomas Hurley got the question wrong and lost the money. Jeremy Hobson, Paige Kimble and Simon Horobin have their own thoughts on Hurleys situation. The newest generation usually does not have to rely on their spelling skills to function, and should not be penalized for their ignorance. In this news article about Thomas Hurleys spelling error, Jeremy Hobson is the host and invited Paige Kimble, the executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, to join her. Her stance on the Jeopardys decision to count Hurleys answer as incorrect is that she fully supports it. As a competition host, she understands that rules are rules and they must be followed. That is her perspective on the situation. Simon Horobin, a professor of English
language and literature at Oxford, was also invited on the show to express his opinion, also. Horobin believed that Hurleys answer was correct even though it was spelt incorrectly. In this new generation with twitter, texts, and other means of social media has made any

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progress of standardized spelling of words become more difficult. Horobins opinion is that as long as you can understand the word you have intentions of spelling on, then it should count. I also believe this. While I do understand Kimbles point of view. I, a young adult raised and exposed to the newest digital age, believe that it is challenging to always be expected to know and remember how to spell certain words. In the social and corporate world, it seems really unprofessional to spell words wrong. But everyone is guilty of it. Everyone has lost a spelling bee in their lifetime. Everyone uses autocorrect on their phones. Everyone misspells a word when typing a word document and when they see that red squiggly line under the word, they right-click for the correct suggestions. And everyone is definitely guilty of using a dictionary, online or physical book, to look up the spelling of a word. I dont think its fair for Thomas Hurley to be penalized for having the intelligence and knowledge of information that some kids his age dont even possess, but just misspelled the word by one letter. It was obvious what he meant. Twitter only allows you to use 140 characters to compose a tweet. How do I get an entire thought out in 140 characters? What do I do when I need 141? These are probably the most common questions that come to mind when first exposed to twitter. Our world has come a long way in the sense of language. From the day life existed on earth, communication has been an important factor. We went from using signs, to symbols, to finally developing a writing system. Spelling wasnt important. If you could sound out the word, it worked and did its job. As the world modernized, standardization of spelling these words developed. People always learned to spell every word the same way. Then as the world modernized more, acronyms, abbreviations, and dialect came into play. So when typing my 140 character tweet, I am going to use those abbreviations to fit it one message. Typing an entire word out became tedious and took too long. Everyone wants instant. So I do believe that social media has corrupted the spelling system, and it cant change back.

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Reflective Afterthought: In this essay, I was trying make to explain the article we read and pick a side. I chose a side and explained why. I wanted to write a more of an argumentative essay to get my point across more clearly.