Grammar girl here, this week I'm going to talk about why spelling matters.

You'd think this would be obvious, but a prominent opinion piece in Wired sparked a spelling

kerfuffle and showed that at least in some academic circles, proper spelling is considered

optional.

So here's some background.

And Troubec, an associate professor at Oberlin College, has an opinion piece this month

in Wired magazine.

With the title, Proper Spelling, it's Time to Let Loose.

Developed without an apostrophe, Time spelled TYME, and Loose spelled LUCE.

Now writers don't usually get to write the headlines for their articles, and headlines

can be misleading.

But the bulk of the content in the article also appears to argue for allowing the concept

of proper spelling to include multiple phonetic alternatives.

These two sentences from the article will give you an idea of its thrust.

But autocorrect and spell checkers are wrong headed because they reinforce a traditional

spelling standard.

Consistent spelling was a great way to ensure clarity in the print era, but with new technologies,

the way that we write and speak, and search, and data mine is changing, and so must spelling,

unquote.

In the second sentence, quote, instead of trying to get the letters right with imperfect

tools, it would be far better to loosen our idea of correct spelling, unquote.

Another point to clarify is that you might be thinking she was arguing for simplified

...