Spell check. Many would lay their life down for it. I, on the other hand, hate it. Spell check sucks for 5 reasons, but it's too late because now I'm dependent on it.This is why it sucks:
5. I feel like a failure
When I'm just typing away and not really watching the screen, it makes me sad to look up and see almost EVERY WORD underlined with that freaking red squiggly line. Its like my computer is making fun of me... :-(
4. Homonyms suck
"I have 27 cents! Since yesterday, I've been sad. I can sense the force!" Why do words have to sound alike? Spell check never picks up on that... (Ok, I know MS Word has grammar check, but I'm talking about SPELL check, like that in Firefox or the Google search engine.)
3. From, form, and for
Miss a letter, swap a letter, or accidentally add a letter and its over. Too often, short words that are messed up are actually some other word spelled correctly! It is a dead giveaway to the reader that you didn't proof read or that you're a Spell Check addict (and now-a-days, who isn't).
2. LIES UPON LIES!
Ok, I'll admit it. Spell check makes me look smarter than I really am. Today I had a written exam in my History class, but I don't think I spelled even 50% of the words right. I've become so dependent on that red squiggly line that I just can't hack writing in real life!
1. I don't learn from my mistakesAuto-correct in MS Word is the biggest culprit for this one. If you accidentally misspell a word (Entrepreneurship) and Word fixes it without telling you, then how can you learn from your mistake? Because of auto-correct, I still spell "future" as "futur," "wrong" as "wronge," and a variety of other words in dumb ways.
In the end, I need spell check. I wish I had grown up without it, but now I am utterly dependent upon it's power. Unfortunately, that means its weaknesses are my weaknesses and its strengths are my strengths.
I'm sorry for hating on you, Word, but I must. :-(
~jw
