Watch Your Writing Errors

WATCH YOUR WRITING ERRORS

When writing, it is very easy to make mistakes, especially when using the computer, as we have a tendency to allow our written essays, poems, articles to just be sparsely scanned by spell-bots, but, in reality, the spell checkers only check the single word. The word may be correct, but the word may not be the right choice, such as marital is correct, but what if martial, which is also correct, was the actual word you wanted? One is concerning marriage, and the other concerns military items. You need to check the spelling, and the usage with syntax, or the right word used the right way!

Also, ‘marshall law’ is totally different from ‘martial law’, as the first concerns the law of a lawman, and the latter concerns law under military rules.

Also, please refer to the use of the ‘apostrophe’, as many uses of it are badly incorrect. For instance, use the ‘apostrophe’ for contractions and possession, so if two words are combined for a contraction, such as ‘it is’ becomes it’s then that is the proper usage, but when it’s is used to show possession, then the usage is wrong, for then it should be its, without the ‘apostrophe’.

And, further, any word ending in ’s’ and showing possession, places the ‘apostrophe’ after the ’s’ without adding another ’s’. Such as Judas owns an apple, so you would show that as “Judas’ apple”.

Refer to a thesaurus and the dictionary, they have both on the net, and I recommend the Merriam-Webster, but not the social network spellers, as the latter are full of errors!

I noticed someone use the word ‘waist’ today, when the needed word was ‘waste’, and someone stepped forward and let them know. One is the small area of your body above the hips, and the other is trash, or junk. Hopefully, the article was fixed because of that comment, but I see wrong spellings and usages more than I could have imagined.

I am not implying that everyone will know this, as we have many foreign writers who are contributing in a secondary language for them, and I applaud their brave use of our very intricate language, but for the common user, this is ridiculous, as they should be aware of the proper usage of word forms and all the extra punctuation with it.

Please use the singular and plural forms right also, as these cause the syntax to falter when used incorrectly!

Before you post your article, poem, story, or anything else, please preview it, and check the spelling and punctuation. Then double-check! This will keep the mistakes down, and make understanding the work so much easier.

If you post it and then notice a mistake, use the fix button, and reverse the mistake, before leaving the reason for the fix, and posting again.

Have fun writing, but let’s make sure everyone understands what you are writing about!

PTR February 19, 2012