Wye Carn't Piepl Spel?

[OneeyedJohn]

Poor spelling is forgiveable, especially when using a keyboard.

However, poor grammar detracts from the meaning

and getting the message across is what a Forum such as this is all about.

Duuuurrrhhhhh

Edit: There is a grammatical error here somewhere....

Edited August 23, 2006 by OneeyedJohn

[Niloc]

One that really annoys me is when people use the wrong word intending it to mean something else, trying to change the language.

For example : a loser is someone who doesn't win. Looser means it is more loose... The front wheel on my bike is looser than the back wheel therefore it will probably fall off first and in the race, I will be the loser!

[wilko]

Whilst at Uni in Brisbane (I have an MA in "colorin' in wiv Crayon") my tutor asked me what spellcheck I used on Word. I replied that I used either US or UK, he then asked why I didn't use Aussie spellcheck...

I replied that I couldn't as I used words of more than 4 letters.

[udon]

I can understand the Aussies problem-they are only 120 years old and still learning,but the rest of you!

Correction... 220+ years old. & we still can't spill.

[daleyboy]

Like i mentioned in another post the other day, the best way to deal with spelling is install Google toolbar, this has a spell checker built in, and then it is just a click away. As shown on my desktop. Hope this helps

[Ricardo]

Wi Cna't Pepel Spehl ?

Becus their igranant !

[redrus]

Spelling mistake....?

Blck....!

redrus

[Sulaphat]

Eye halve a spelling checquer

It came with my pea sea,

It plainly marques four my revue,

Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word

And weight four it two say

Weather eye am wrong oar write,

It show me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid,

It nose bee fore two long

And eye can put the error rite,

Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it,

I am shore your pleased two no,

Its letter perfect awl the weigh,

My checquer tolled me sew

[Tywais]

Could be that english is not the first language of many posters. But then that doesn't explain the Brits.

[redrus]

But then that doesn't explain the Brits.

Why would you "try" and explain....?!

We wouldn't....

redrus

[Tywais]

But then that doesn't explain the Brits.

Why would you "try" and explain....?!

We wouldn't....

That's because it would be under the "too close to the problem" theory.

[CalicoConsulting]

Common Writing Mistakes

Copyright Michael LaRocca but I can't remember the year. It's old!

Most books aren't rejected because the stories are "bad." They're rejected because they're not "ready to read." In short, minor stuff like typos, grammar, spelling, etc.

I don't mean places where we, as authors, deliberately break the rules. Those are fine. They're our job. Language always changes with use, and we can help it on its way. No, I'm referring to places where someone just plain didn't learn the rule or got confused or overlooked it during the self-edits.

I've been editing novels since early 2000. Looking back at my experiences, I feel like sharing the most common mistakes I've seen. If you'll go through your manuscript and fix these before you submit it to a publisher, your odds of publication will increase dramatically.

Once you've found a publisher who publishes what you write, you want to present yourself in the best way possible. Submitting an unedited manuscript is a bit like going to a job interview wearing a purple Mohawk, no shoes, torn jeans, and a T-shirt. Your resume may be perfect, and your qualifications impeccable, but something tells me you won't get the job.

The publisher's investing a lot in every book it accepts. E-publishers tend to invest loads of time, and print publishers tend to invest an advertising budget and the cost of carrying inventory. Why ask them to invest hours and days of editing time as well? If the publisher gets two or three or ten nearly identical submissions, you want yours to be the one requiring the least editing.

The first thing you need to do, and I hope you've already done it, is use the spelling and grammar checkers in your word processor. They're not perfect, but they'll catch many of the "common mistakes" on my list. I've been asked to edit many books where the author obviously didn't do this, and I confess that I may have been lazy and let a couple of mine get to my editors unchecked. Bad Michael!

Here's a list of the mistakes I see most often.

Dialogue where everyone speaks in perfect English and never violates any of the points below. Okay, I made that up. That's not really a common problem at all. But I have seen it, and it's a terrible thing.

It's is a contraction for "it is" and its is possessive.

Who's is a contraction for "who is" and whose is possessive.

You're is a contraction for "you are" and your is possessive.

They're is a contraction for "they are," there is a place, their is possessive.

There's is a contraction for "there is" and theirs is possessive.

If you've been paying attention to the above examples, you've noticed that possessive pronouns never use apostrophes. Its, whose, your, yours, their, theirs...

Let's is a contraction for "let us."

When making a word plural by adding an s, don't use an apostrophe. (The cats are asleep.)

When making a word possessive by adding an s, use an apostrophe. (The cat's bowl is empty.)

A bath is a noun, what you take. Bathe is a verb, the action you do when taking or giving a bath.

A breath is a noun, what you take. Breathe is a verb, the action you do when taking a breath.

You wear clothes. When you put them on, you clothe yourself. They are made of cloth.

Whenever you read a sentence with the word "that," ask yourself if you can delete that word and still achieve clarity. If so, kill it. The same can be said of all sentences. If you can delete a word without changing the meaning or sacrificing clarity, do it. "And then" is a phrase worth using your word processor's search feature to look for.

Keep an eye on verb tenses. "He pulled the pin and throws the grenade" is not a good sentence.

Keep an eye on making everything agree regarding singular and plural. "My cat and my wife is sleeping," "My cat sleep on the sofa," and "My wife is a beautiful women" are not good sentences. (I exaggerate in these examples, but you know what I mean.)

I and me, he and him, etc. I hope no editor is rejecting any novels for this one, because I suspect that most people get confused at times. In dialogue, do whatever the heck you want because it sounds more "natural." But for the sake of your narrative, I'll try to explain the rule and the cheat. The rule involves knowing whether your pronoun is the subject or object. When Jim Morrison of The Doors sings, "til the stars fall from the sky for you and I," he's making a good rhyme but he's using bad grammar. According to the rule, "you and I" is the object of the preposition "for," thus it should be "for you and me." The cheat involves pretending "you and" isn't there, and just instinctively knowing "for I" just doesn't sound right. (I think only native English speakers can use my cheat. For the record, I have great admiration for anyone who's writing in a language that isn't their native tongue.)

Should of, would of, could of. This one can make me throw things. It's wrong! What you mean is should have, would have, could have. Or maybe you mean the contractions. Should've, would've, could've. And maybe 've sounds a bit like of. But it's not! Of is not a verb. Not now, not ever.

More, shorter sentences are better. Always. Don't ask a single sentence to do too much work or advance the action too much, because then you've got lots of words scattered about like "that" and "however" and "because" and "or" and "as" and "and" and "while," much like this rather pathetic excuse for a sentence right here.

On a similar (exaggerated) note: "He laughed a wicked laugh as he kicked Ralphie in the face while he aimed the gun at Lerod and pulled the trigger and then laughed maniacally as Lerod twisted in agony because of the bullet that burned through his face and splattered his brains against the wall and made the wall look like an overcooked lasagne or an abstract painting." Now tell me this sentence isn't trying to do too much.

Too means also, two is a number, to is a preposition.

He said/she said. Use those only when necessary to establish who's speaking. They distract the reader, pulling him out of the story and saying, "Hey look, you're reading a book." Ideally, within the context of the dialogue, we know who's talking just by the style or the ideas. When a new speaker arrives on the scene, identify him or her immediately. Beyond that, keep it to a minimum. I don't mean delete them all, because it's really frustrating counting backward to see who is speaking because you forgot. Just don't go overboard with them. Oh yeah, and give every speaker his/her own paragraph.

Billy-Bob smiled his most winning smile and said, "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" I don't like this. Use two shorter sentences in the same paragraph. Billy-Bob smiled his most winning smile. "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" Same effect, fewer words, no dialogue tag (he said).

In the previous example, I don't like "smiled his most winning smile," because it's redundant, but I'd probably let it slide. But please, if you find yourself writing something like that, try to find a better way to express it before you just give up and leave it like it is. During the self-edit, I mean, not during the initial writing.

"The glow-in-the-dark poster of Jesus glowed in the dark." This editor won't let that one go. Much too redundant, and it appeared in a published novel.

Lie is what you do when you lie down on the bed, lay is what you do to another object that you lay on the table. Just to confuse matters, the past tense of lie is lay. Whenever I hit a lay/lie word in reading, I stop and think. Do that when you self-edit. (Note: Don't fix this one in dialogue unless your character is quite well-educated, because most people say it wrong. I do.)

Beware of the dangling modifier. "Rushing into the room, the exploding bombs dropped seven of the soldiers." Wait a minute! The bombs didn't rush into the room. The soldiers did. To get all technical about it, the first part is the "dependent clause," and it must have the same subject as the "independent clause" which follows. Otherwise it's amateur, distracting, and a real pain for your poor overworked editor.

Okay, so these are too much fun to let go. Here are a few more from http://www.uis.edu/writestuff/gaffes.htm: Just like men, heart disease is the number one killer of men in the U.S. Mixing Bowl Set designed to please a cook with round bottom for efficient beating. We will oil your sewing machine and adjust tension in your home for $10.00.

When something dark gets lighter, that is lightening. Them things that flash through the skies during a thunderstorm are called lightning bolts. No e, okay?

If you are able (many readers are not), keep an eye out for missing periods, weird commas, closing quotes, opening quotes, etc. When I read a book, be it an e-book or a printed book, I can't help but spot every single one that's missing. They slap me upside the head, which makes me a great editor but a lousy reader. If you're like me, use that to your advantage. If not, that's what editors are for.

[Buckwheat]

I have Dyslexia and when I entered a spelling contest I took SALT place.

[Noel]

It's is a contraction for "it is" and its is possessive.

Who's is a contraction for "who is" and whose is possessive.

You're is a contraction for "you are" and your is possessive.

They're is a contraction for "they are," there is a place, their is possessive.

There's is a contraction for "there is" and theirs is possessive.

Too means also, two is a number, to is a preposition.

Hmmm, I don't suppose you let your partner go out on her own too often then?

All a matter of degree, I suppose...

[OZONE]

I had an old bag of a school teacher always pulling me up about my spelling, she informed me that there where plenty of spell checkers for free on the internet.

I won she never pulled me again about my splling

"The old bag" didn't happened to be Pepi1 would it?

has the op considered that the poster(s) primary lanuage may not be English?

[terry57]

Aussie’s

watch your self cobber,

i must inform your goodself, that aussies are strait up, dinky die, cracking brilliant fella's.

cheers mate

[Mr Jones]

Aussie’s

watch your self cobber,

i must inform your goodself, that aussies are strait up, dinky die, cracking brilliant fella's.

cheers mate

I know, I lived with the Bludgers for four years

I worked as a Blacksmith

[redrus]

I had an old bag of a school teacher always pulling me up about my spelling, she informed me that there where plenty of spell checkers for free on the internet.

I won she never pulled me again about my splling

"The old bag" didn't happened to be Pepi1 would it?

has the op considered that the poster(s) primary lanuage may not be English?

Hve u cunssidred reedin tywais possts.....!

Could be that english is not the first language of many posters. But then that doesn't explain the Brits. wink.gif

redrus

[terry57]

Aussie’s

watch your self cobber,

i must inform your goodself, that aussies are strait up, dinky die, cracking brilliant fella's.

cheers mate

I know, I lived with the Bludgers for four years

I worked as a Blacksmith

ripper then johnsy,

you have 1st hand experience with all my top mates,

so you know that my pontificating is strait up then ?

cheers me old salt

[yorkman]

See what I mean,just awful!

Actually , Kayo can spell.

He just sometimes suffers from what has been diagnosed as "keyboard frenzy".

We all understand this.

You , however , now have a whole forum waiting for your first spelling mistake !

No pressure , eh ?

Hmmm..wait for my first spelling mistake...indeed pick it up and ridicule. I will wait for the first punctuation mistake (if i may). O.k. (Orl Korrect to you )

[OZONE]

I had an old bag of a school teacher always pulling me up about my spelling, she informed me that there where plenty of spell checkers for free on the internet.

I won she never pulled me again about my splling

"The old bag" didn't happened to be Pepi1 would it?

has the op considered that the poster(s) primary lanuage may not be English?

Hve u cunssidred reedin tywais possts.....!

Solly, if you didnt' spel corlectly, then I didn't readit.

Could be that english is not the first language of many posters. But then that doesn't explain the Brits. wink.gif

redrus

[usatrader]

I can understand the Aussies problem-they are only 120 years old and still learning,but the rest of you!

??

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

ONLY FORWARD IF YOU CAN READ THIS

[wilko]

I can understand the Aussies problem-they are only 120 years old and still learning,but the rest of you!

??

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

ONLY FORWARD IF YOU CAN READ THIS

seen it - - got the t-shirt

[kayo]

U wot?

Oi'm Inglich.

Or the dyslexic drug addict......he tried to inject a heron.

That must have been the same night he got caught with a bag of F's in the night club.

That was the night after he became a devil worshipper and sold his soul to Santa :0

Did he meet Santa in the bra?

No... don't think so.... may have been at the dickso

Tsh, lads! I´ll be thanking you to not chatter about my private life in public lads, please!

[Lacoste]

I can understand the Aussies problem-they are only 120 years old and still learning,but the rest of you!

??

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

ONLY FORWARD IF YOU CAN READ THIS

seen it - - got the t-shirt

Yeh, i posted it in post 26