Guardian — Does Students' Spelling Matter?
Another debate about spelling. As a teacher and essay marker, I think poor spelling is maybe less serious than problems with content, argument structure, etc. But I think one of the main things students are working on is to develop their skills in a particular genre, formal academic essay writing, and that includes spelling according to standard conventions. It's very easy to remember that it's will never occur in a formal essay (since this contraction should always be spelled out as it is) and to use a spell-checker, so we'll always point out mistakes like that to students.
Billy