: Re: Does misspelling words for the sake of bad English improve the immersion or distract the reader? I am trying to write a character that speaks English poorly. I do not want to grossly misspell

@Lengel543

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Long ago, there was a story by Daniel Keyes titled "Flowers for Algernon" (later made into a movie titled Charlie which was then novelized with that title, much longer than the original story and, in my opinion, less impactful). The story was in the form of diary entries by the narrator character, who started the story with an IQ of 63, and very poor ability to write. The spelling, grammar and vocabulary in that part of the story reflected that. Later, an experimental treatment brought the narrator to near-genius intelligence, and his narration reflected it, with greatly increased vocabulary and perfect spelling and grammar.

In the final part of the story, it was found that the effect of the treatment was temporary, and the decay of the narrator's English was used to emphasize the agony of knowing that his mind was decaying.

This is a very good example of using the character's speech to build the character -- maybe one of the best ever.

So, short answer: yes, if you do it well, using poor spelling and grammar can contribute to your story, if it tells the reader something about the narrator or other character, and doesn't make the reading too much of a chore.

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