Useless Ideas About Spelling

Useless Idea 3: It Doesn't Matter Anyway

This is the easiest of the three useless ideas to deal with. The plain fact is that spelling does matter. For three reasons:

1. The first reason is that a spelling mistake can make it impossible to tell what you mean. For instance:

He flounted his degree.

Does this mean that he flaunted it (showed it off)? Or that he flouted it (treated it with contempt)? Spell it right and we might have some idea - as it is it's hopeless.

2. The second reason is more important. It is that if you make a lot of spelling mistakes,
It doesn't look good.
It's basically as simple as that. It's true that some people don't care about spelling much. But lots do. And they'll think it doesn't look good.

3. The third reason is a technical version of the second. To explain: when you write essays on physiotherapy (to take just one example), you are learning to do physiotherapy. If you make lots of spelling mistakes, you are making it clear that you can't do physiotherapy - because long words are too hard for you.
This is especially true when you make Major Spelling Mistakes. When you do that, your tutors think it doesn't look good AND they get annoyed with you. So you lose marks.