A Little Practice Will Take Your Efforts a Long Way Your ability to communicate with your audience will give your credibility an incredible boost, strengthen your efforts online and offline, as well as afford you the freedom to concentrate your energy elsewhere. A critical piece of communication is using correct spelling and good grammar. This will ensure you maintain your reader's attention on you and your topic. You may consider investing in a spellchecker, finding a proofreader, or enrolling in an English Grammar course. Whatever you choose to do, you can rely on getting spelling and grammar tips right here. So let's get to it: Here are your next 5 spelling blunders to include in your proofreading checklist to strengthen your article writing skills. Seperate vs. Separate If you are desperate to distance yourself from the "seperate" blunder, break down the word separate to find its meaning. Se-para-te: apart from - to one side of - te (Correct) Se-per-ate: apart from - through/during/each - ate (Incorrect) Example: I separate my pens from my pencils. Key: Separate your parakeets. Indispensible vs. Indispensable To ible or able, that is the question. They have incredible similarities, but which is usable? If you want to make yourself indispensable to your readers, our biggest recommendation to solving this one quandary: Grab a dictionary. Through use and practice, eventually ible and able will become second nature. Example: Your insight is indispensable. Key: Gables are indispensable. Occuring vs. Occurring This little suffix can trip everyone up: ing. The confusion here is rooted in words ending in ing that require an additional letter or an omission of a letter to complete the word. For example: write and writing, run and running, occur and occurring, etc. Example: Prevent errors from occurring. Key: Double the R in occurring. Recieve vs. Receive The dreaded ie vs. ei! You may have heard this phrase: "I" before "E" except after "C". This is a fairly good guideline to stick by, but there are always exceptions. Consult your dictionary if you are not sure. Example: You will receive a gift! Key: "I" before "E" except after "C" = Re-C-EI-ve. Ghandi vs. Gandhi This prominent figure is the first name to make it to our lists: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a.k.a. Mahatma Gandhi. Why is Gandhi's name spelled incorrectly? This may be due to the similar sounds ga and gha (e.g. Ghana, gander, and Gandhi). Example: Gandhi pioneered the use non-violent resistance. Key: Take a gander at Gandhi and you will see freedom. Be like Gandhi: Become indispensable! Separate yourself from the crowd and prevent spelling blunders from occurring to receive tons of credibility! Gandhi said "an ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching." We will always provide you with tons of spelling and grammar tips, but it is up to you to put them into practice! Not only will you strengthen your ability to communicate with your audience by practicing, you will gain the freedom you need to concentrate your efforts elsewhere. We will have another installment of spelling blunders over the next few weeks and soon we'll begin tackling usage errors. Keep an eye out for our spelling and grammar keys to ensure your articles are error free. Doing so will increase your credibility and drive more traffic to your blog or website! Do you have a spelling pet peeve? Share yours by visiting this post online! Did you miss our last edition of Top Spelling Blunders? Check it out here! |