Top marks in English fail to spell proficiency

Until my first year of university last year, when one of my tutors quite bluntly pointed it out to me, I had always written ''definately'' instead of ''definitely''.

I went through 12 years of schooling and completed both Advanced and Extension 1 English during my HSC in 2007 without knowing how to spell the word. I was also still unclear about the difference between ''its'' and ''it's''. And I had no idea when it was appropriate to use a semicolon (I still have to Google ''semicolons'' to remind myself).

Many people my age have an appalling grasp of spelling and grammar. Some blame instant messaging and the wide use of abbreviations. Others blame the (arguably) apathetic members of Generation Y. I blame the high school English curriculum.

The NSW Board of Studies years 7-10 English syllabus aims to teach students to ''speak, listen, read, write, view and represent'' and ''use language and communicate appropriately and effectively''. Punctuation, spelling and grammar are itemised in the curriculum, but there seems to be a lack of focus on spelling and grammar in the classroom.

And what message does it send in HSC English exams, when students are not marked down for spelling or punctuation errors? Bad spelling and punctuation only count against them when the marker cannot understand what it is they are trying to express.

One English teacher told me: ''I think they just assume teachers will just put [spelling and grammar] into their program when they do their own individual programming in the school. But the issue there is that the syllabus itself is so full of all this other stuff that they are requiring us to teach kids, that there isn't much time left when I'll only see one class five times every two weeks.''

Personally, I have vague memories of learning the definitions of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and prepositions in primary school, which I remember to this day. I also remember doing a weekly spelling test. But high school English was different. I learnt how to spot a simile and metaphor from a mile away. I learnt to be critical of the books I read and the films I watched. I learnt to question why an author or a filmmaker would phrase something a certain way or use a certain type of camera shot. What I did not learn about was spelling or grammar.

If I made a mistake, my teacher would circle it in red pen. Sometimes I caught myself wondering whether I should be using ''it's'' or ''its''. But, being a typical 15-year-old, instead of bothering to find out, I would go online and try to download another episode of The O.C. or something.

Many internet browsers have spellcheck functions but none seem able to check grammar. This is odd, considering the amazing advancements in technology over the past decade.

Perhaps it is because a computer program cannot pick up on the context of a sentence and tell whether a person means ''it's'' or ''its''. Computer spell checks have made people lazy when typing.