diff --git a/init.vim b/init.vim
index 2db863e..ff10c94 100644
--- a/init.vim
+++ b/init.vim
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ set tabstop=4
 set expandtab
 set number
 
+" turn spelling on for text based documents
+autocmd FileType tex,latex,markdown setlocal spell spelllang=en_au
+
 " ***********************************************************
 " ********************* install pluggins ********************
 " ***********************************************************