Posts Tagged ‘Spelling’
Writing is a craft, and as with any craft it has to be learned. Or should that be learnt’? Which is the correct spelling? Writing is all about using the correct words in the correct order. So far, we have concentrated on the mechanics of achieving the right word order in a sentence. Now, however, we want to turn to getting the words themselves right.
There are several aspects to this. One is finding the right tone. There is, in Itself, nothing wrong with phrases such as well hard, but it would probably Strike a rather jarring note in a formal essay if you wrote that Julius Caesar was well hard, a diamond geezer. The more fundamental difficulty, however, is that of knowing, or not knowing, how to spell words. In some ways this is becoming less of a problem in students’ work because they can confirm their spelling on a computer’s spell-check. This is obviously a useful tool and can be used interactively to improve Spelling in addition to correcting inaccurate word-processing. There is, however, also a negative side to relying on a computer, especially for spelling quite common words, since it is these that are... Read more...
Tags: correct spelling, formal essay, how to spell words, phrases, spell check, Spelling
Posted in English Tips, Sound Alike Words |
There are numerous things that can go wrong when you are writing, ranging from the isolated word that is spelt incorrectly to an entire sentence that fails ;o make sense. Some of the most common problems, however, are problems usage, of being unclear about, for example, the difference between flaunt and flout, or whether hanged or hung is correct. Writing is all about paying attention to detail, which means making sure that you always get the right words in the right order. But if you do not know the conventions if usage, you are almost bound to come unstuck. We have, therefore, listed below, in alphabetical order, a Top 30 of the niggling little queries about usage.
1. Agree to, agree with
Agree to means that you accept what someone proposes (although you might, of course, agree to differ). Agree with means that one person or thing is in accord with another: agree to that suggestion-, I agree with you about the need for more trees.
2. All right
All right is two words, and means that everything is correct: The spellings were all right Alright is used to mean ‘well’, ‘unhurt’: The s... Read more...
Tags: alphabetical order, attention to detail, conventions, correct writing, dictionaries, distinction, english writing tips, paying attention to detail, singular, Spelling
Posted in English Tips |
The writing of a dissertation or final report usually involves a longer period of time and more one-to-one supervision than does any previous work in a program of study. There should, therefore, be opportunity for you to receive feedback as you undergo the process of planning, investigating and writing up the work (rather than only after completion). Let us therefore consider how to make use of this feedback.
Proactively seeking advice
As you progress through the investigation of issues and the writing of tike dissertation itself, so the kind of advice you will require changes. You need to recognize this and actively seek the appropriate kind of feedback at the right time. In my experience some students are very good at getting the most out of me as a supervisor and varying their questioning as they progress; others are less so and tend to remain at one level where they either expect too much or too little or an inappropriate kind of guidance.
To get the best out of your supervisor, you need to see yourself as managing the way in which you are being supervised:
- At the early stages of the dissertation pe... Read more...
Tags: new approach, period of time, sentences, Spelling, unexpected questions
Posted in Writing a Dissertation |
Practice/practise
These two are constantly muddled up. That might seem an exaggerated claim, but even as we revised this book we came across this in The Times Higher Education Supplement: The institute has got to justify itself and we are now agreed we are not looking to issue a license to practice.’ The license being discussed is a license to teach; what the article should have said is ‘a license to practice’. Practice is a noun, whereas practice is a verb. Doctors, therefore, work at their practice where they practice their trade. In the same way, you practice your violin, but you do it during something that is your violin practice. If there is an active element of doing something, it is the verb, practise-, if, however, it is just a description of the activity, rather than actually doing the activity, it is practice. You should therefore:
Practise the piano, because practice makes perfect.
Another way of checking is to remember the two words device and devise, where there is the same distinction between noun and verb, but the sound is different enough to prevent them being confused. In Ameri... Read more...
Tags: education, few words, present tense, Spelling
Posted in Sound Alike Words |
Most examiners make tremendous allowances for work done under pressure and don’t expect a perfect performance, but a student who can turn in a measured, controlled piece of writing always impresses in examinations. The same applies, curiously, to word-processed essays. These are usually very professional in appearance, but what matters is the weight of the argument and how that is executed from beginning to end.
But let’s look at how the advice applies in other areas. If you were studying politics, or taking a general studies paper, you might have to write an essay about the victory of the Labor Party in the 1997 General Election, and the humiliation of the Conservative Party in that election. In an unplanned essay, you might start by saying that Labor had been out of office for 18 years, then wander on to the part that Tony Blair played, perhaps touching on the divisions within the Conservative Party. But it would be a loose collection of Ideas in which you were looking for a shape and direction. It seems to make a lot more sense to establish some opening propositions, then to see what happened next, and finally ... Read more...
Tags: Essay Writing, How to Write Essay, paragraph, piece of writing, Spelling
Posted in Essay Writing, Writing |
We want to talk about various conventions that relate to the presentation of written work, particularly the kind of work produced by university students. Several of these points are bound to come up in any essay you write; it is, therefore, well worth checking through the list to see if you are presenting your work in an appropriate way. It is just this kind of attention to detail that surreptitiously picks up more marks for you in an essay but also helps you to develop a polished and professional approach to written work.
1. Spacing work
A word-processed essay should always be double-spaced (set your word-processor to print on every other line). Generous spacing makes your essay easier to read, and leaves room for the marker to write in comments. The main secret of typing essays is always to allow plenty of space on the page: sensible margins, double-spacing, a reasonably large font or type-face (we suggest not smaller than 11 point text). Think of the needs of your reader; your reader wants to be presented with something that is easy on the eye, and as such easy to read.
Your aim in word-processing (or, more r... Read more...
Tags: attention to detail, paragraph, punctuation, Spelling, university students, word processing, word processor
Posted in Writing |
It’s/its
The most important thing to remember is that there is no such form as it’s’. Its is one of a few words that are already possessives, and do not, therefore, need an apostrophe adding to them. These words are
my/mine its
your/yours our/ours his their/theirs
her/hers whose
As we noted in the last passage, it’s is two words (‘it is’ or ‘it has’) contracted into one: it has nothing to do with the possessive. It’s is used in a large number of situations, but it is by far the best policy to avoid contractions (words such as can’t, don’t and won’t) in formal essays, as these are colloquial forms of the words and therefore not entirely appropriate. Some writers, it has to be said, disagree. There is, though, a further danger with contractions: if you forget to put the apostrophe in, for example, ‘can’t', you end up writing ‘cant’.
We hope by now, therefore, that you can see the sense of avoiding writing it’s and instead using it is whenever possible:
It is my dog and ... Read more...
Tags: few words, formal essays, Spelling
Posted in English Basics |
Syllabilising, and pronouncing slowly
February usually means a spell of bad weather, and bad spelling. Lots of people write February rather than February. Is there a way of avoiding such an error? One helpful approach when you are unsure about a word is too loud it out very slowly to yourself, emphasizing each syllable, or sound element, of the word. The result can be that the spelling of the word becomes clear, as in Feb/ru/ary. We can apply the same approach to words like tem/per/at/ure and vet/er/in/ary and a great many others.
If even if we do not isolate the syllables of a word, pronouncing a word slowly, carefully, and with a deliberate, heavy emphasis, can sometimes pip. It is not always a reliable guide, partly because so many of us elide bits of words when we speak and it is usually these bits that we misspell, but it is another aid. For example, try pronouncing these words with a heavy emphasis on each sound involved:
Aspirin irrelevant
disastrous ... Read more...
Tags: environment library, learn to spell, library government, sound element, Spelling, spelling tips
Posted in Grammar, Spelling |
