Telegraph kicks off a great press campaign for The Spelling Society in June
Saturday, June 21, 2008
To celebrate their 100th birthday, The Spelling Society commissioned a study to look at the current state of spelling in the UK.
The results were published by Press Contact, and were sent out nationally and regionally to broadcasters and print media. The response was interesting.
The Telegraph were the first to publish the results of the study.
Does spelling leave you embarrassed?
By Tom Peterkin
Last Updated: 3:22AM BST 23/05/2008 | Comments 98 | Have Your Say
Around half of British adults are unable to spell commonly used words such as embarrassed, liaison or millennium, research has disclosed.
Pupils of Harrow public school filing past their headmaster Dr J L James on Founders Day
GETTY
Those surveyed blamed poor spelling on parents and teachers
More than a quarter of those surveyed struggled to spell definitely, accidentally and separate.
One in three Britons had trouble spelling and was not confident enough to fill in an application form without resorting to a dictionary or spell checker.
The under-35s were more likely to be uncomfortable filling in a job application form than their parents or the over-55s.
Thirty-five per cent of under-24s relied on some form of spell check compared with 13 per cent of over-55s.
For the study, 1,000 people were asked to spell 10 commonly used words.
Every word was misspelled by somebody.
The survey commissioned by the Spelling Society, an organisation campaigning for the simplification of spelling, showed that those in the North were worse at spelling than their southern counterparts.
Tim Hutt, of ICD research, which carried out the study, said: "Embarrassed is most likely to be spelt incorrectly at 54 per cent incorrect rate. However, 63 per cent in the North East spelt the word wrongly compared with 51 per cent in South East and South West."
Those surveyed blamed poor spelling on parents and teachers, with three quarters believing that spelling among children had declined over the past 10 years.
But John Gledhill, of the Spelling Society, said: "It is not the fault of the teachers, nor of the students, but of the archaic spelling system which they have to learn.
"We are, in effect, still using 16th-century spelling for a 21st-century language, and grammar and pronunciation have changed since then, with the written language lagging a couple of centuries behind."
Percentage of those who spelt the following words incorrectly:
Embarrassed - 54
Liaison - 46
Millennium - 43
Definitely - 37
Accommodation - 36
Accidentally - 26
Separate - 25
Attempted - 8
Appeared - 6
Friend - 3
What are the words you have difficulty spelling?
The results were published by Press Contact, and were sent out nationally and regionally to broadcasters and print media. The response was interesting.
The Telegraph were the first to publish the results of the study.
Does spelling leave you embarrassed?
By Tom Peterkin
Last Updated: 3:22AM BST 23/05/2008 | Comments 98 | Have Your Say
Around half of British adults are unable to spell commonly used words such as embarrassed, liaison or millennium, research has disclosed.
Pupils of Harrow public school filing past their headmaster Dr J L James on Founders Day
GETTY
Those surveyed blamed poor spelling on parents and teachers
More than a quarter of those surveyed struggled to spell definitely, accidentally and separate.
One in three Britons had trouble spelling and was not confident enough to fill in an application form without resorting to a dictionary or spell checker.
The under-35s were more likely to be uncomfortable filling in a job application form than their parents or the over-55s.
Thirty-five per cent of under-24s relied on some form of spell check compared with 13 per cent of over-55s.
For the study, 1,000 people were asked to spell 10 commonly used words.
Every word was misspelled by somebody.
The survey commissioned by the Spelling Society, an organisation campaigning for the simplification of spelling, showed that those in the North were worse at spelling than their southern counterparts.
Tim Hutt, of ICD research, which carried out the study, said: "Embarrassed is most likely to be spelt incorrectly at 54 per cent incorrect rate. However, 63 per cent in the North East spelt the word wrongly compared with 51 per cent in South East and South West."
Those surveyed blamed poor spelling on parents and teachers, with three quarters believing that spelling among children had declined over the past 10 years.
But John Gledhill, of the Spelling Society, said: "It is not the fault of the teachers, nor of the students, but of the archaic spelling system which they have to learn.
"We are, in effect, still using 16th-century spelling for a 21st-century language, and grammar and pronunciation have changed since then, with the written language lagging a couple of centuries behind."
Percentage of those who spelt the following words incorrectly:
Embarrassed - 54
Liaison - 46
Millennium - 43
Definitely - 37
Accommodation - 36
Accidentally - 26
Separate - 25
Attempted - 8
Appeared - 6
Friend - 3
What are the words you have difficulty spelling?
posted by Vikki Rimmer at 7:33 PM
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