Spelling

Computers Do Not Catch It All

While writing a Microsoft Office WORD program--as is required in our course--you will notice red, green, and blue squiggly lines appear under sections of your writing.  While these marks will help you notice and fix grammar, spelling, and word choice issues, the system will not catch every problem in your writing.  Words that are 'real' yet are not the correct usage (sense vs since, loose vs lose, deer vs dear, weather, whether, and wether [learn more here about this issue], etc) in a sentence are often overlooked by the MO Word program.  This is why editing is so important as a step in the Writing Process.

Be sure to take the time to not only REVISE your work but go very slowly through your writing as you check for EDITING issues.  Spelling is a quick way to not only annoy your reader, but it will reduce your overall score for your essay since it indicates one of two things to your instructor: you did not EDIT or you do not know grammar and punctuation rules.  Either way, you will unnecessarily lose points if you have these simple issues occurring in your writing when you submit it for instructor review.

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Common Errors in English Usage

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Other Good Resources

• American Heritage Book of English Usage (now out of print but used copies are available cheap)
• AskOxford: An excellent dictionary with many other resources on British English.
• Worldwide Words: Michael Quinion investigating International English from a British Viewpoint
• Daniel Kies’ Modern English Grammar
• Jack Lynch’s Grammar and Style Notes
• Charles Darling’s Guide to Grammar and Writing
• Dr. NAD’s Prig Page Grammarist A commercial site with ads and links to products, but offering many useful free resources dealing with usage and style.
• Ronald B. Standler’s Technical Writing Guide
• Garbl’s Writing Resources On-Line
• UsingEnglish.com: useful resources for those studying English as a second language
• English as a Second Language Help Desk at Washington State University
• WWWebster Dictionary (Merriam Webster) provides recorded pronunciations
• Grammar Girl’s Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing Detailed discussion of individual points.
• Heteronyms
• Antagonyms
• Differences between British, Canadian and American Spelling
• William Safire’s self-violating “Rules for Writers”
• The Eggcorn Database Great collection of misheard words and phrases.
• Crash Blossoms Bungled headlines
• Demi-Entendres Mixed-up expressions
• The Word Detective interesting essays on word origins
• Geoffrey K. Pullum: 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice (an interesting critique of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.
• Reviews of Common Errors in English Usage

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