Spellbound

Spellbound

Your correspondent Peter Calviou (spelling checker's suggestion: "calve", presumably as in to give birth to a young cow or bull) may feel he is intellectually above computer spelling checkers (Letters, 18 March), going as far as to state that "no literate person can regard computer spellchecks as anything other than a source of amusement". Perhaps he has a private secretary or perhaps he is himself a qualified typist.

For those of us literate persons who are not so qualified, nor sufficiently wealthy to employ those who are, the computer spelling checker is a great source of comfort, as a means of identifying, and thereafter eliminating, both mis-typings and such slips as omitted spaces or capital letters. It may also ensure that we use the correct phrase, spelling checker, instead of spellcheck, which may possibly be an Americanism. My software speaks quite good English, considering that it was developed in America.

rosalin barker

Whitby, North Yorkshire