Spelling in the Digital Age: Spell- checkers’ Impact on Writing : A quantitative study on the effects of spell- checkers on English grammar

Abstract: Due to the increased usage of technology and its indicated aid in writing acquisition, it is important to investigate the effects of spell-checkers on the English language. Thus, this essay has conducted a quantitative study to ascertain if there has been an improvement or regression in English spelling with the aim of gathering an indication of if and how spelling has evolved and changed with the development of spell-checkers. This study intended to answer two main questions: “Has spelling improved after spell-checkers were invented?” and “Can spell-checkers be seen as an aid in helping people learn how to spell better?”. Texts from before the development of spell-checkers and texts from after were utilized and searched for possible misspellings, to identify whether spelling has improved or not. The main finding was that there was a numerical difference between the two groups of texts, with the older texts containing an average of 43% misspellings as opposed to the newer texts which comprised an average of 7% misspellings. Thus, it was concluded that with the emergence of spell-checkers, spelling has improved. In relation to the second question, this research detected that although spelling mistakes have decreased, certain misspellings and errors are occurring, such as errors in transposition and omission, indicating that spell- checkers might not in fact be an aid in improving spelling competence. However, more data is required with regard to the second question, thus the answer remains inconclusive, with the need for further data to reach an assertive answer.