Spelling Mistakes

The education system in this country has seen massive changes over the past sixty odd years. At one point children took an examination called the eleven-plus and from the results of this either went to Secondary schools or grammar schools. The resulting exams again reflected difference in that Grammar school children sat GCEs and Secondary pupils sat CSEs. This inequality of education provision has largely been corrected and children are now expected to stay in the school system until they are sixteen. English is not the easiest of languages and it has a complex grammatical system that even degree-educated people sometimes find difficult to master. It would appear obvious then to make allowances for the written work of those who did not benefit from the earlier education systems and were not able to stay in education until at least their sixteenth birthdays.

However we do have devices such as spell check and it should be easy enough to correct spelling mistakes even though we are dealing with an American based form of the language. I was therefore disappointed to note that Dragon had created not only a new word but also a new spelling for it and used it in a context that would make it inapplicable. I refer to paraletically, as in her reference to myself being paraletically drunk and insulting her daughter and fellow officers et al. The correct usage of this word would be paralytic drunk. However this too cannot stand in the context used as to be paralytic drunk requires being supine and immobile. Unless one removed ones clothing and wrote insults on ones body prior to attaining paralysis it would seem impossible for one to achieve the act of insulting others.