Spell Checkers

[DuckLady]

My 92 YO mother in law uses a calculator, then she does the math on paper to make sure the calculator came up with the correct answer!

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
My aunt does the same thing! Says she doesn't trust "That machine".

 

[Ridgerunner]

Can I take this in a slightly different direction, then come back to the topic? I'm an engineer by training and profession, at least was until I retired. I relied a whole lot on calculations. I used computers and hand-held calculators. In the time I worked, I could not have performed my job without using those tools. But it's garbage in - garbage out. If my computer program spit out that an 8" I-beam could span 45 feet then I knew I had messed up. You have to know the basics before you can accept the results.

When I was training young engineers fresh out of college, I made them design padeyes or other things by hand, using a hand-held calculator and a reference book, not using the computer programs that were available. Part of it was that I needed to believe they understood the forces and stresses involved, but also that they could handle that type of thing without a computer program. Sometimes they would be on a construction site without a computer network available. They had to be able to do that type of calculation without a computer program. But more important, they had to have a feel for what was right and what was wrong.

As clumsy as my fingers are on a keyboard, I'm a firm believer in the benefits of a spell and grammar checker. But I think you need to know how to spell and how to use correct grammar to know whether to hit change or ignore once. It is not that I don't trust the machine. It's more that I do not always trust the imput.

 

[chikky]

I'm taking MBA classes and you wouldn't believe the number of teaching materials that have spell-check related errors. It appears to me that the material was not reviewed prior to release and it drives me nuts! International professors and students rely heavily on spell-check. While it is a good tool for people who have a good command of the English language, it is not a catch-all.

I'm in 100% agreement with the comments stating that you have to know what you're doing before you can use a calculator or any other tool. Even grammar-checker isn't 100% accurate. Some of the best tools, in my opinion, are manuals such as "Little English Handbook". They are excellent handbooks for punctuation, spelling and the like. And by using them, one actually learns the associated rules.

My son can't really read an analog watch or clock. Scary, huh! (He's 23, by the way) Welcome to the digital age! How many kids can't tie shoes because of velcro and slip-ons?

 

[jojo54]

The spellchecker is only as good as the student. The student needs to know before they can correct.

Check out the poem someone sent me once by email.

A Little Poem Regarding Computer Spell Checkers...

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

 

[chikky]

Great post!

 

[woodmort]

Good post Chicken Obsessed, but the sad thing is that we're headed in the direction where there would be nothing wrong with what you wrote--if it sounds right then it is wright. Write?