Spell Cheque

I like to think I’m a semi-intelligent person and a good speller but I find that lately I’m checking the spelling of words more and more.  This never used to happen.  In elementary school, I participated in the Spelling Bees and I always made a good showing.

I took a chunk out of my childhood free-time learning to spell ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’.  (Quick, close your eyes and try to spell it)   To date, this is the first time I’ve had any reason to write this lengthy word, and yes I did double-check the spelling.  Can you believe my spell check didn’t include this word?  The point is I’ve always loved words.

I’m a reader like most writers.  I have lots of contact with the written word.   It’s not that I’ve lost my ability to spell, it’s that I’ve lost confidence in my ability to spell.  Spell check is available  when I’m writing a blog post but I need it when I’m making comments. Since I’ve started blogging, I’ve consulted the dictionary more times than I did in the last ten years.

And although this is mainly a confidence problem, it stems from a few isolated incidents.

The first confidence shaker has to do with double letters. It seems I want longer words.  I want two l’s in hilarious.  I want two s’s in occasion.  And the funny thing about this word is that I spell it ‘occassion’ and then I realize it looks wrong so I change it to  ‘ocassion’. (Spell check is going to love this post)

I’m a little embarrassed to share this incident, but last week, I asked my daughter how to spell ‘resent’, as in, ‘I resent the fact that you have a young brain.’  I knew ‘resent’ seemed correct but didn’t that word mean to send something a second time?  Sometimes words look strange in their proper context and this was one of those times.

Even with my shortcomings, I’m still a spelling snob.  If I read anything I haven’t written and words are misspelled I’m critical.  I’m especially critical if it’s something the person is getting paid to write, like a newspaper article or a book.  I’ve noticed this more and more in my readings.  I think we’ve lowered our standards in the editing department.

I hope the longer I blog, the more confident I will get in my spelling ability.  I hope I get past the double letter dilemma.   If not, I’m going to change my location to some tiny island in the Pacific and tell everyone that’s how we spell ‘occassion’ on the island of Kewsmith.