Ten days ago I asked writers to test their spelling skills. Little did they know that I would be using the results to prove my theory that dA writers cannot spell.

49 People have taken part to date and the following results are conclusive and irrefutable.

In the test - hosted by The Guardian and devised by Vivian Cook, author of spelling compendium Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary - dA writers were asked to select the correct spelling of 23 words and were given 3 options for each word to choose from.

The results? Well! Everyone participating scored more than 8 (thank goodness!) With 14.28% correctly spelling between 8 and 11 words. 40.82% reported that they scored between 12 and 15 - that's 55.1% of those participating unable to correctly spell at least 8 out of the 23 words on the list!

26.53% correctly spelled between 16 and 19 words, with 18.37% claiming to be able to spell upwards of 20 of the words correctly.

~futilitarian and =sumants seem to be the best spellers amongst the group, scoring 22 and 23 respectively.

The most telling part of the test has to be the excuses people use for their poor spelling. These ranged from being drunk the previous night, to having just woken up. My favourite excuse has to be: "Can I just use the "I'm Canadian" defense" - this must be why all of the lit GDs scored 18+, well, all that is except the Canadian.

Feel free to take the test if you haven't already.