Spelling questions sent to the ORTHOTEL service in France between January and August 1995

This study analyses a corpus of 1,000 questions addressed to the ORTHOTEL s ervice between January and August 1995. Accessible via the Minitel, this se rvice provides assistance in helping ordinary writers resolve their spellin g difficulties. The analysis yields two major results: on the one hand it s hows accrued interest in grammatical markers and in particular those of the plural. It also allows for the description of highly differentiated normat ive attitudes linked in interpretation to real or supposed competencies. Th e observation of these questions which precede the act of writing suggest f urthermore that the areas of spelling insecurity are not necessarily direct ly related to social distinction.