Ever hated your spell checker?
By Pigglies
@Pigglies (9329)
United States
April 28, 2007 10:05pm CST
I tend to leave my spell checker on a lot for assignments. Generally, I'll have it so that the words will be underlined instead of corrected automatically. I hope that in addition to helping me correct errors, this will also improve my spelling. But sometimes I'm running out the door and need the computer to just correct things quickly.
So the other day I was doing some ochem homework, and I was trying to say that if the heat was on too high the temperature might rise too quickly, so that the melting point of even an impure sample could appear to occur instantaneously. Instead, of saying "instantaneously" however, the computer put in "intravenously". So even though what I said was correct, the computer messed it up and I missed points for that. What made me really mad, was that I had attached my written copy too. Darnit. I hate when the spell checker does that. But overall, it is nice to type homework and not have the professor mark things off because they cannot read your answers.
4 people like this
12 responses
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
30 Apr 07
Nope I don't, I don't have one, I would love one though. Actually I need one, I hate misspelling words it makes me feel stupid even though at times I know the word it just eludes me at the time I need it most. So a spell checker would be great. I have firefox like some and they say they have a spell checker on their firefox version 2. But I cannot download it because my computer doesn't have the right requirements. I am slowing getting my other computer fixed so I can use it and finally*yippee* get to have one. lol
1 person likes this
@Chazzyben (65)
• India
29 Apr 07
I had one of such experience, which i want to share with you people.I was preparing my project report which I had to submit the next day.I was supposed to type "under the guidence of", for which by mistake i typed "under the guideship of".I laughed to my heads off when i saw the spell checkers correction. The correction was " Under the guide's hip".It had interpreted "guideship" as "guide's hip".Isn't it really funny.
@gifana (4833)
• Portugal
29 Apr 07
I usually turn it off while I am writing and only engage it when the piece is completed. I find that this saves me time. However, I can see how it could mess up if one is not careful. I can't see what attaching the written copy to the final draft has to do with anything....especially losing points. If the original had the word instaneously it should follow that teacher/professor should accept the original. Oh well, what do I know?
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
29 Apr 07
Because the written copy it was correct (it might not have been spelled correctly, but you could tell if you could read my sloppy writing, that it said "instantaneously"). But she only grades the typed copy, so it doesn't matter that originally I had it correct.
We could actually write stuff and turn it in, but we get points off for neatness too. So I'd probably have gotten more points off if I hadn't typed the lab report.
@BlueOrchid (187)
• United States
29 Apr 07
It's not the spell checker's fault you were in a rush so you couldn't be bothered to actually review the work to see if the correct words were being used. Don't get me wrong, I've done plenty of rush jobs and suffered for it. But that's my fault, not the computer. It's a computer program, it will guess wrong sometimes, without the ability to use context clues. ;-)
But doing it the way you usually do is best (NOT autocorrect), it will improve your spelling with words you misspell a lot. It takes longer but, honestly, if you want to ever be someone in the world, you have to be willing to take an ectra 10 minutes to do *good* work. I applaud you for that!
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
29 Apr 07
True. I'd just rather blame the spell checker. ;)
I think the spell checker overall has improved my spelling. When it can't guess at all, I type the word into my electronic dictionary and then it usually figures out what I mean. So that's also improved my horrible spelling.
If I actualy fully proofread a whole page I wrote, it would probably take me more than 10 minutes unfortunately though. Especially because I would be reading it, not the computer.
@danishcanadian (28953)
• Canada
29 Apr 07
Yeah, that's happened to me before. I was in a hurry once, and misspelled persue, and my spell check substituted persue instead. To peruse happiness? That didn't make sense, and I did not catch it until the day I had to hand in the report, and it was already printed. By that time it was too late to do anything about it. AARRGGHH!!! That annoyed the heck out of me.
@GnosticGoddess (5626)
• United States
29 Apr 07
I know what you mean!
I hate that feature and turn it off too so that it'll just underline. Because I had those problems myself.
Luckily though for me I don't have to worry about a professor taking points off since I'm not going to school though.
I feel for you.
@pilbara (1436)
• Australia
30 Apr 07
Generally they are good but they can be annoying. My main problem is that despite the fact that I set mine up for english english it still insists on american english, quite often it even changes my words automatically so then I have to go and put them in again.
@easy888 (10405)
• Australia
29 Apr 07
Hello,pigglies,I do not like to use the spell checker too,i always see some red lines under some of the words,although i will not see them in the print out ,it is disturbing when i am typing,also it tends to correct some words which are in fact the right word,i do not trust the speel check.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
29 Apr 07
Yeah, the red lines annoy me too sometimes. But I never bother adding in my words that I use frequently to make the lines go away.
I used to use a program back in the DOS days, where the lines actually did print out! That was bad.
I hate type writer spell check at work because the thing is always beeping at me and then my coworkers laugh.
@SheliaLee (2736)
• United States
1 May 07
I like my spell checker but the problem is sometimes I'll misspell a word such as "the" when I meant to spell them and it doesn't catch that because "the" is a correct spelling. A spell checker has a lot of advantages and disadvantages doesn't it??
@rainqueen21 (338)
• United States
29 Apr 07
yes i remember when i was in college and i had papers to do the spell checker was on and it would always highlight things that were actually correct. I never set it to be automated because i learned in high school that it will mess your paper up,so ever since then i turn the spell checker off and when i am done with my paper then i turn the spell checker on and go through the paper it actually helps
@passionsfruit (9)
• Philippines
30 Apr 07
Yep, most especially when I'm writing informally since most words I use are from our native language. I can't afford to turn it off either coz my hands are just too careless when typing. But since we're using 2 languages here I can't spot the misspelled ones right away! and i end up having garbled words nonetheless. So much for that. lol.
