Describing Spelling Errors: Misspellings of Some Everyday English Words among Undergraduate English Students of Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano

Citation: Idris, A.A. & Muhammad, A.U. (2025). Describing Spelling Errors: Misspellings of Some Everyday English Words among Undergraduate English Students of Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano. Tasambo Journal of Language, Literature, and Culture, 4(1), 104-114. www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2025.v04i01.011.

DESCRIBING SPELLING ERRORS: MISSPELLINGS OF SOME EVERYDAY ENGLISH WORDS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE ENGLISH STUDENTS OF YUSUF MAITAMA SULE UNIVERSITY, KANO

By

Ali Abubakar Idris
Department of English and Literary Studies
Northwest University, Kano
aaidris@yumsuk.edu.ng
+2347069581696

And

Ali Umar Muhammad
Department of Nigerian Languages
Northwest University, Kano
aumuhammada@yumsuk.edu.ng
08034283128
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0708-1101

Abstract                                    

The aim of this paper is to investigate misspellings of some everyday English words among undergraduate students of English. The research is based on Katz and Frost’s (1992) Orthographic Depth Hypothesis. Through random sampling, 48 participants were selected from a total population of 58 400 level undergraduates of Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano. Experimental and controlled groups were formed, both of which sat pretest and posttest. The experimental group learned some spelling tips before the second test. Comparing the misspelled words to Wikipedia’s (2023) 100 most frequently used English words, it has been identified that some of the commonest misspelled words are “there”, “their”, “government” “a lot”, “day”, “child”, “important”, “other”, “and”, “are”, “about”, “into”, “my”, “for”, “woman”, “this”, “her”, “an”, “want” and “go”, all of which are available in the Wikipedia’s list. Thus, the research findings show that the misspelling of everyday English words among the undergraduate students of the English language is because of a lackadaisical attitude they exhibit towards correct spelling, and being a word familiar to them does not always help in their attempt to spell it. The study further suggests that, since spelling is a prime example of writing sub-skill, it should receive greater attention to both researchers and teachers.

Keywords: Spelling, Error, Word, English

1.0 Introduction

Spelling is, unarguably, a sub-skill of writing skill, and the clarity of any piece of writing relies, among other things, on it (Ahmed, 2017). Therefore, a text can be marred by vagueness as a result of misspellings. Also, writing seems to be an activity in which many people, especially academics, engage throughout their lifetime. Unfortunately, many people take spelling for granted, so much so that even the most common words used daily are not properly spelled by them, even when their spellings appear to be simple. On the other hand, “the emergence of social networking sites contributes unprecedentedly to the rampant use of cyber language, even in academic writing” (Idris, 2016; Imtiaz et al., 2023). This leads to substitution (replacing a word with another one) and violation (using non-English words), both of which are found in the current study. This paper briefly explains the concept of words, writing systems, and spelling. It also examines how some frequently used words are misspelled by some undergraduate students of the English language.  

2.0 The Word                                                                                                           

The word in any language plays a crucial role. Thus, the major concern of this study is how some common words are wrongly written. Obviously, every word in English is written in a standard form, since certain letters are brought together in a proper and acceptable way for the conveyance or representation of ideas, feelings, or objects. However, a word, as a basic element in language, is, as best and succinctly defined by Bloomfield (1984), ‘a minimum free form’ and ‘the smallest unit of speech’ because it is what we can separate in actual speech. By this, it is clear that words are isolated segments of speech that combine together to produce a string of sentences. Simply put, words are the building blocks of speech. Bloomfield’s definition seems to argue that articles like “the”, “a”, and “an” are words since they are written in isolation. Words are the simplest independent elements of speech.

On the other hand, some scholars, like Nation and Meara (as cited in Schmitt, 2002) and Gelderen (2006), argue regarding knowing the exact number of words contained in a particular text or known by an individual. For example, the issues of content words (like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) and function words (like articles, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, and auxiliaries) as well as “tokens” and “types”, were proposed by Nation and Meara (Schmitt, 2002). Types designates only the different words available in a text, while tokens refers to each of the different forms of a word found in a text, irrespective of the number of times it appears therein. In this case, the different forms of a word are counted, as in “make”, “making”, and “made”. There are many instances where knowing the number of words is required, but as “…for testing the level of students’ vocabulary, Types is more suitable” (Idris & Mansur, p. 9, 2024). Still, the number of words in a text is relative.

2.1 100 Most Common English Words

Wikipedia (2023) presents a list of the 100 most commonly used English words. The list is tabled using some parts of speech, which are nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and others (pronouns, possessives, adverbs, adverbs, articles, conjunctions, and modal verbs).

Rank	Nouns	Verbs	Adjectives	Prepositions	Others
1	time	Be	Good	To	the
2	person	Have	New	Of	and
3	year	Do	First	In	a
4	way	Say	Last	For	that
5	day	Get	Long	On	i
6	thing	Make	Great	With	it
7	man	Go	Little	At	not
8	world	Know	Own	By	he
9	life	Take	Other	From	as
10	hand	See	Old	Up	you
11	part	Come	Right	About	this
12	child	Think	Big	Into	but
13	eye	Look	High	Over	his
14	woman	Want	Different	After	they
15	place	Give	Small		her
16	work	Use	Large		she
17	week	Find	Next		or
18	case	Tell	Early		an
19	point	Ask	Young		will
20	government	Work	Important		my
21	company	Seem	Few		one
22	number	Feel	Public		all
23	group	Try	Bad		would
24	problem	Leave	Same		there
25	fact	Call	Able		their

 

2.2 Writing Systems                                                                                                                                                

Writing can be regarded as anything expressing or representing an idea or feeling. According to Fromkin et al. (2011 p. 541), writing “means a visual system for representing language, including handwriting, printing, and electronic displays of these written forms.” Now, it is clear that there are different kinds of writing. The three major kinds of writing systems are known as logographic writing, syllabic writing, and alphabetic writing. It is traceable that more than 20,000 years ago, man attempted to convey information through cave drawings and the manipulation of clay, which dates back about 10,000 years. This is regarded as man’s early effort to keep records since these artifacts were used as writing at the time (Yule, 2006). Such man-made objects have eventually been transformed into simplified symbols to serve as representations of words or ideas.

Similarly, according to Gelderen (2006), man probably began using language about 50,000 years ago, and that was the same period when some historical evidence is said to indicate the use of language in forms very similar to writing, as man conveyed information through cave drawings or the manipulation of clay. The emergence of writing likely stems “from drawings on wood or stone (petroglyphs),” which tell stories. Some of the earliest writing systems include the Harappan/Indus Valley writing, which dates back 5,500 years; Egyptian writing, 5,300 years; Mesopotamian cuneiform, over 5,100 years old; as well as Chinese characters, which date as far back as 3,500 years. Another is Mesoamerican (Mayan) writing, about 2,500 years old. Evidently, the earliest form of today’s writing was cuneiform, which was more or less like syllabic writing used by the Sumerians around 5,000 years ago. Yet, an ancient script that clearly has a connection with today’s writing systems can identifiably be observed in inscriptions, mainly on stone or tablets, dating back 3,000 years (Yule, 2006). It is obvious that writing systems mostly originated in the eastern part of the world.

2.2.1 Logographic Writing

Before the advent of syllabic and alphabetic writing systems, there existed some signs which were used to convey messages, information, and ideas - hence, logographic writing. A logograph or logogram, according to Trauth and Kazzazi (2006), is a writing system in which the meaning of words as individual units is conveyed through graphic signs called logograms. This type of writing can be read like alphabetic writing. In other words, logographic writing, as defined by Crystal (2008), refers to written or printed symbols which stand for words, morphemes, or even affixes and roots in a language. In the Orient, Chinese and Japanese Kanji writing systems are regarded as typical examples of logography. Also, the signs '$' for dollar, '£' for pound, and '+' for plus (Trauth & Kazzazi, 2006), as well as numerals like 1, 2, 3, and symbols used in mathematics and science (Crystal, 2008) are logographic instances. Simply put, in a logographic writing system, we use a symbol to represent a particular word.

According to Yule (2006), the writing system in which wedge-shaped inscriptions or cuneiform were used by the Sumerians about 5,000 years ago is a good example of logographic writing. Logograms could have further developed into 'rebus writing' - where a symbol was used to represent a sound, as in the case of the word 'eye' whose pictogram changed into a logogram and could be applied to a word or sound like 'I' based on the principle of rebus writing. Moreover, pictures were used as representations of images, hence picture-writing or 'pictograms', which later could metamorphose into a system of idea-writing or 'ideograms'. Both 'pictograms' and 'ideograms' are neither representations of word-writing (logograms) nor of sounds in a particular language, although it was assumed that they were precursors of some symbols in later writing systems. Clearly, writing systems have evolved through developmental-like stages.

2.2.2 Syllabic Writing

At least, a combination of a consonant and a vowel (or even a single vowel pronounced with a single breath) is what is referred to as a syllable. Thus, a writing system in which a symbol represents a sound produced in such a way, or the pronunciation of a syllable, is a syllabic writing system. In the view of Yule (2006), the Phoenicians' writing system (used by a people who lived in what is today known as modern Lebanon between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago) made good use of a syllabic writing system, and many of the symbols used in that system were derived from earlier Egyptian writing. Syllabic writing is, most probably, of Lebanese and Egyptian origin.

Now, true syllabic writing is no longer in common use. However, the way modern Japanese is sometimes written 'with a set of single symbols' that represent spoken syllables makes it somewhat similar to a syllabic writing system. Additionally, in the 19th century, a syllabic writing system was created by Sequoyah, an inhabitant of North Carolina. This writing system was used by his Cherokee community for messaging. Furthermore, both the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian writing systems originated from a point where some earlier logograms were adapted to represent spoken syllables. According to Brown and Attardo (2009), the Japanese kana system ("ka", "ki", "ku", "ke", "ko") is an example of a syllabic writing system that includes about 40 hiragana characters (used for writing native Japanese words, all grammatical morphemes, as well as loan words). Syllabic writing is, therefore, a collection of symbols that represent sounds which can be divided segmentally.

2.2.3 Alphabetic Writing

The alphabetic or phonetic system is based on sounds. Alphabetic writing, also known as the Roman alphabet (with which English is written), refers to a set of written symbols - each specifically representing either a consonant or vowel - where each symbol corresponds to a single sound. The Phoenicians' early Semitic alphabetic script is the source of most world alphabets. However, its modifications originated from Iranian, Indian, and Southeast Asian writing systems, spreading westward through Greek, where the alphabetization process (adapted from syllabic writing) developed to include vowels as distinct entities. From the Greeks, these alphabetic modifications reached the Western world via the Romans (Yule, 2006). Thus, the English writing system represents a modification of various Oriental writing systems.

Though English adopted a modified version of alphabetic writing, the mismatch between spelling and pronunciation remains significant. This discrepancy results from historical influences on written English. When printing was introduced in fifteenth-century England, spelling was influenced by Latin and French, compounded by the fact that many early printers were Dutch. Since then, English pronunciation has undergone substantial changes. For instance, words like "knife" and "knight" were originally pronounced with their initial consonant sounds. The sixteenth century witnessed spelling reforms - for example, "dette" became "debt," and "iland" became "island" to distinguish them from their Latinate forms. These changes make the spelling-pronunciation mismatch particularly evident.

Noah Webster's lexicographical contributions introduced changes that distinguish American from British spelling. Webster eliminated unnecessary letters, creating spellings like "color," "encyclopedia," and "traveled" (Collins & Mees, 2013). However, while he successfully changed "honour" to "honor," his more radical proposals (like "giv" for "give" and "laf" for "laugh") were never widely adopted (Yule, 2006). Early attempts to regularize English spelling proved largely unsuccessful. As Greenbaum (1996) argues, spelling reform ultimately failed, with prior efforts to reform English spelling remaining abortive.

2.3 Spelling and Spelling Mistakes

Spelling is writing a word or words with the necessary letters in a proper way or arrangement. On the other hand, spelling inconsistency is the lack of harmony between the letters that make up a word. A spelling mistake can then be regarded as the omission, substitution, insertion, or misplacement of a letter when writing a particular word. Misspelling is divided into 'errors of competence' and 'errors of performance' (Mitton, 1996). While 'errors of competence' designates a situation where a person misspells a word because they have never known its correct spelling, 'errors of performance' refers to mistakes one makes due to various reasons when spelling a word despite knowing its correct spelling. This classification is very similar to Damerau's (1964) typographical and cognitive errors of spelling (Gupta & Mathur, 2012), but Damerau's is computer-centered. Besides studies on spelling errors committed in handwriting (with which this research is concerned), some research also exists on spelling errors committed in typing.

2.3.1 Spellchecking Techniques

Different methods are used for spellchecking. Some of these methods include presenting a set of words with both their correct and incorrect spellings, affix stripping, presenting a large database, and edit distance (Mitton, 2010). Additionally, pseudoword or nonword spelling is another technique used by many researchers for checking spelling mistakes. Simply checking spelling mistakes appears to be based on confirming or rejecting how someone has written a word.

Commonly, a list of incorrectly spelled words and their correct spellings is presented to participants in spelling studies. This allows them to identify which version is the correct spelling of a given word and which is not. In vocabulary testing, the target is content words (Bachmann & Palmer, 1996). This approach is particularly applicable to spellchecking since it is primarily concerned with testing words or their written forms, although in this research even function words received equal attention. Similarly, Gupta and Mathur (2012) argue that spellchecking focuses on individual words rather than the actual text. Words alone are typically the focus of spellchecking.

Edit distance, according to Mitton (2010), involves assigning costs to different inappropriate arrangements of letters in written words. Some spelling mistakes are assigned low costs while others receive high costs. An insignificant change like doubling a consonant (writing 'bagg' for 'bag') will incur a low cost. An improbable change like replacing a 'p' with a 'y' will incur a high cost. For instance, Mitton assigned a cost of 5 to replacing 'p' with 'y' in 'pot' and changing 'k' with 't' in 'yoke' respectively, as both are unlikely. Changing an 'a' to an 'o' as in 'want' and 'was' costs only 1, considering pronunciation, while omitting 'ch' in 'yacht' incurs a cost of 2, just as replacing 'ph' with 'p' does. Essentially, an improbable mistake attracts higher costs than a likely one.

Edit distance, as the simplest method, operates on the assumption that spelling errors are typically minor and may involve insertions, deletions, or substitutions. This method is particularly useful for correcting keyboard input errors as they are most likely of these types. However, it is less effective for correcting phonetic spelling errors, especially in languages like English or French where the relationship between spelling and pronunciation is inconsistent (Gupta & Mathur, 2012). By assessing the seriousness of spelling errors, this method enables objective cost assignment to each error.

2.4 Theoretical Framework                                                                                                                          

The Orthographic Depth Hypothesis proposed by Katz and Frost (1992) has been suitably applied for this study. This is to give a clear illustration of English orthography, and to have a good understanding of the nature of English spelling which Chomsky (1970) postulates has no consistent relation with its pronunciation, or as Chomsky and Halle (1968) categorically explain, there is no direct relationship between English spelling and its pronunciation. Misspelling is also caused when the pronunciation of a word does not guide its spelling (Greenbaum & Nelson, 2002). A good example of this is the silent grapheme found in many English words, like 'p' in 'corpse' and 'cupboard', which Soneye (2007) argues many Nigerians pronounce. Katz and Frost (1992) argue that their major idea in the ODH is that, for recognizing words, all alphabetic orthographies use some assembled phonological components. Hence, since English orthography is alphabetic, it is not an exception in this respect.

Moreover, Katz and Frost (1992) postulate that the orthography of all languages is grouped into shallow or transparent orthography, and deep or opaque orthography. Shallow orthography is a kind of orthography in which the relationship between spelling and pronunciation is clear. Even a non-native speaker of a language with such orthography can read easily in it. But reading in a language with deep orthography will be very difficult for a non-native speaker. Meanwhile, lexical comprehension difficulties represent one of the most prevalent challenges in reading development, as highlighted by Sani et al. (2017, p. 77). Now, many researchers worldwide indicate that children learn to read faster in shallow orthographies compared to English (Hoxhallari et al., 1992). Another argument on this nature of English spelling is that of Baugh and Cable (1993), that the major obstacle to possessing proficiency in the English language for learners is the confusing nature of its spelling and pronunciation. They further present fourteen spellings of the /ʃ/ sound. Spelling in some languages is simpler than in others.

In comparison to Spanish, French and German, English orthography is a good example of deep orthography, although French, in comparison to Spanish, is under deep orthography. Davis (2005) also argues that in successful reading, it is necessary for the brain to first make a correct connection between a word and its sound. In languages like English, French and Hebrew, a single phoneme can have several spellings, but in others it retains the same spelling. Some good examples in English are "cow" and "bough" which rhyme in the same way, just like "true" and "through". The spellings of each of these pairs of words do not help in understanding that their rhymes are the same. Again, some spellings may have different pronunciations; "ough" in "bough", "through", "though" and "enough" are typical examples in English. The nature of orthography is relative, and it is also common to have one spelling with more than one pronunciation, and one sound with more than one spelling, especially in a language with deep orthography.

Finally, in their conclusion, Katz and Frost affirm that whereas languages and their orthographies accommodate changes, and the reasons why the changes occur are known most of the time, the processes of memory, like the ability to recognize differences and the like, may not change. The Orthographic Depth Hypothesis per se is about a part of this great concern of the match between writing systems and human abilities. Meanwhile, it is factual that the English language has undergone such changes with which the ODH is concerned, like that of spelling reform. Therefore, the applicability of the Orthographic Depth Hypothesis to this study is unarguable.

3.0 Methodology, Population, Sample and Data Collection

The experimental research technique was employed for this study. Forty-eight 400-level students majoring in English were randomly selected for the research, and they were divided into experimental and controlled groups (the former learned some spelling tips before their posttest) each of which constituted twenty-four students who sat pretest and posttest on essay writing of about two hundred and fifty words which were later analysed through the use of descriptive statistics of frequency counts, and percentages.

4.0 Tabular Representation of the Analysis

The factors that affect the spelling abilities of undergraduate students of English at Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano are homophones, paronyms, phonological processes, spelling pronunciation, social networking sites, and inattentive attitude towards correct spellings. Therefore, seven types of spelling errors were found which are Insertion, Deletion, Spatialization, Violation, Substitution, Joint, and Disarrangement. And all these were identified in the spelling of everyday words among the research participants.

Table 1: The Percentages of the Types of Errors Found in the Pretest of the Experimental Group

S/N	Types of Errors	Total Number of Misspelled Words by the Group	Number of Times the Type of the Spelling Errors Were Committed	Percentages
1	Insertion	146	31	21.2%
2	Deletion	146	30	20.5%
3	Spatialization	146	17	11.6 %
4	Violation	146	36	24.6%
5	Substitution	146	36	24.6%
6	Joint	146	4	2.7%
7	Disarrangement	146	3	2.1%

 

The table above indicates that 146 spelling errors were committed by the Experimental Group in their pretest. Sorting out the errors, the above seven kinds of errors were found. Hence percentage was assigned to each one of them. The types with the highest percentages are Violation and Substitution, each of which was found 36 times representing 24.6% respectively. Next is Insertion with 31 occurrences representing 21.2% followed by Deletion which occurred 30 times with the percentage of 20.5. It is clear that the difference between English orthography and that of the language of the research participants and spelling pronunciation caused the spelling errors called Violation, e.g. ‘becouse’ (because), just as homonymy and paronymy contributed in making the spelling errors named Substitution, e.g. ‘not’ (note) and ‘there’ (their). Insertion happened as a result of consonant clusters, e.g. ‘illiness’ (illness) and ‘successifully’ (successfully) but Deletion was caused by some of the superfluous letters of some English words or the English syllable structure, e.g. ‘totaly’ (totally), ‘refered’ (referred) and ‘aquire’ (acquire). Finally, Disarrangement is caused by the irregular representation of English sound by the English alphabet.

Table 2: The Percentages of the Types of Errors Found in the Posttest of the Experimental Group

S/N	Types of Errors	Total Number of Misspelled Words by the Group	Number of Times the Type of the Spelling Error was Committed	Percentage
1	Insertion	119	16	13.4%
2	Deletion	119	16	13.4%
3	Spatialization	119	14	11.7.%
4	Violation	119	37	31.0%
5	Substitution	119	37	31.0%
6	Joint	119	9	7.5%
7	Disarrangement	119	-	-

 

The table above numbered 2 presents the 119 spelling errors committed by the Experimental Group in their posttest. Examining the errors, the above six categories were found, hence percentage was assigned to each one of them.

Table 3: The Percentages of the Types of Errors Found in the Two Groups in their Pretests and Posttests

S/N	Types of Errors	Total Number of Misspelled Words by the Two Groups	Number of Times the Type of the Spelling Errors Were Committed	Percentages
1	Violation	585	167	28.5%
2	Substitution	585	135	23.0%
3	Deletion	585	114	19.4%
4	Insertion	585	106	18.1%
5	Spatialization	585	67	11.4%
6	Joint	585	29	4.9%
7	Disarrangement	585	10	1.7%

 

The table above numbered 3 reveals, based on frequency, the categories of the total 585 spelling errors with their percentages in descending order: Violation (167/28.5%), Substitution (135/23.0), Deletion (114/19.4%), Insertion (106/18.1%), Spatialization (67/11.4%), Joint (29/4.9%) and Disarrangement (10/1.7).

5.0 Discussion

It is apparent that the participants of this study misspelled some of the most frequently used words. Some of these words feature in Wikipedia's (2023) updated list of the most common English words. Such words include "there," "their," "government," "a lot," "day," "child," "important," "other," "and," "are," "about," "into," "my," "for," "woman," "this," "her," "an," "want," and "go." Some of the reasons for these misspellings are inattention to the importance of correct spelling, spelling pronunciation, homophones, effects of social networking sites, the nature of English orthography, among other factors.

Obviously, misspelling of simple words like "and," "into," "about," "my," "this," and most such words is because of the research participants' inattentiveness toward spelling words correctly. This is apparent as these words can even be spelled by nursery school pupils. This seems to coincide with the reason why we have poor spellers whom Glazer (1998) argues have weak "visual memories." On the other hand, spelling pronunciation affects the way the participants substitute "advise" with "advice" (three times by three persons), "most" with "must," "where" with "were," "living" with "leaving," "herd" with "heard," "based" with "best," "two" with "to," "passed" with "past," "cope" with "coup," "later" with "latter," "park" with "pack," "enter" with "inter," "for" with "four," "breathe" with "breath," "once" with "one's," "it is" with "its" (and vice versa), "let us" with "lets," "wedding" with "weeding," "than" with "then," "live" with "leave," "there" with "their," "note" with "not," "having" with "haven," "other" with "order," and "traveler" as "trabler" (because most evidently the research participants are Hausa, a language in which the "v" sound is not available). Clearly, besides spelling pronunciation, homophones contribute to some of the above spelling errors, as in the case of the interchangeable use of words like "there" and "their" and "herd" and "heard." This also shows carelessness among the research participants, as even some words expected to be acquired at the early stage of learning English deceive them contextually. This is the kind of spelling error Da Costa and Arias (2021) define as semantic spelling errors.

Also, social networking sites immensely affect the way the research participants spell English words. This is because some typos and use of abbreviations have even started to become norms among them. This made four of the study participants spell words like "I am" as "am" (six times), "and" as "nd/an," "because" as "coz," "one" as "1," "about" as "abt," and "Nigeria" as "Nig." Moreover, English orthography being deep makes its spelling chaotic, so much so that even native speakers find it difficult.

6.0 Findings

Based on the analysis, the study outlined the following findings:

     i.         The most commonly misspelled English words by undergraduate English students at Yusuf Maitama Sule University are "a lot," "I am," "sometimes," "children," "wear," "because," "where," "at least," "unlike," "there," "their," and "they."

   ii.         A word being ordinary in English does not guarantee it will always be spelled correctly.

iii.         Most spelling errors committed by undergraduate English students at Yusuf Maitama Sule University result from an inattentive attitude toward correct spelling.

iv.         Students demonstrate poor orientation regarding the importance of correct spelling.

7.0 Conclusion

Misspelling of everyday words by the English language students seems to be due to a rather lackadaisical attitude towards spelling.  This is because spelling errors in words like “because”, ‘a lot’, ‘travel’, ‘at least’, ‘I am’, ‘sometimes’, ‘children’, ‘wear’, ‘because’, ‘where’, ‘at least’, ‘unlike’, ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’ affirm this. For instance, the research participants use words like ‘there’ and ‘their’, ‘were’ and ‘where’, ‘in order’ and ‘in other’, ‘must’ and ‘most’, ‘live’ and ‘leave’, ‘whether’ and ‘weather’, ‘listing’ and ‘listen’ albeit some of them are not homonyms is another reason confirming negligence towards spelling among some university students. This proves that many misspellings are caused by an inattentive attitude towards spelling. Also, it is clear that misspelling with the emergence of social networking sites, is getting more common among students. It is observable that many students, including some teachers, fail to give proper attention to spelling. This is probably a result of their preference of giving points when writing to the observance of mechanical accuracy which is seemingly but unknown to them of equal importance to presenting good points in writing. It is unarguable that many spelling errors would not be committed if those who make them are given regular training on spelling tips, and are alerted on the importance of spelling at school.

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