Erie Times-News
Published June 19, 2007
by Rachel Kaufman

The English language has been destroyed. That’s what language purists would want us to believe, anyway. And for a while, I was with them.

Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one left in my generation who can spell without the aid of Microsoft Word’s spell-checker. (Not here, of course. At the Erie Times-News, I am surrounded by bastions of good spelling and grammar, and I am thankful for it.)

We are entering into a new era of language, in which whatever the computer says, goes.

Grammarians blame the Internet and its accompanying demons, instant messaging and online chat for the decline of verbal skills in today’s teens and 20-somethings. There’s also the reliance on computerized spell-checkers — great tools for correcting typographical errors, not spelling mistakes. When you don’t know how a word should be spelled, it’s easy to accept the computer’s suggestion for a correct — yet completely different — word. When kids as young as 9 have cell phones and text-message plans, it’s not surprising that they “learn” that “you” is spelled “u” and “for” is written “4.” And after a few generations, who will care?

Please contact me for more.