Hi Donny,

You post an interesting question, but it's really not anything to be concerned about. The AWA graders consider mis-spelled words when assessing your "style" sub-score, but using alternative spellings of words should not affect your score at all. Furthermore, a few mis-spelled words would NOT be enough to lower your AWA score, since "style" is a category that consists of many details (of which "spelling" is only one). Moreover, the two graders' scores (one human and one computer) are averaged and then rounded UP to the nearest half-point.

If you're looking for ways to improve a lower AWA score, proper spelling is a minor one.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich