A plain language guide to grammar, punctuation and writing well
Spelling tips and tricks.
Oh dear. This one never goes away: “But, as always, the proof will be in the detail and experts have begun pouring over the documents … “ (Metro) “Epps, who had previously been dean of Temple’s Law School, said she remembers pouring over rankings surveys with her teams to make sure the data was correct.”… Continue reading A quick word … poring over poor spelling
This is a case of if it looks wrong, it's right. 'Separate' looks wrong. 'Seperate' looks right - which is why you'll often see it spelt like that. However, the correct spelling is: separate. Remember: there is always a rat in sep-a-rat-e. The following spellings also look wrong, but are correct (there's a rat… Continue reading A quick word … seperate: smell a rat?
Now here's a strange one. One of those English language quirks with no rhyme or reason. 'Side effect' does not take a hyphen. 'After-effect' does take a hyphen. However, note that the American version is written as one word: 'aftereffect'. (I'm glad that we haven't - yet - adopted this on our side of the… Continue reading A quick word … side effect and after-effect
Shoe-in ... or shoo-in? A 'shoo-in' is a person or thing certain to succeed. It's not spelt 'shoe-in' (See Oxford Dictionaries). Lots of people (especially those who write for news outlets) think it is. It isn't. So in all the examples below, 'shoe-in' should be 'shoo-in': The former Brampton Manor Academy student’s humbling accomplishments made… Continue reading A quick word … shoe-in??
Wordsworth, the Wordwatch Towers butler, was dusting the vaults yesterday and came across a post that had to be archived pronto. Why? Because it was no longer accurate. The post (first published in 1847) asserted that the word 'minuscule' should not be spelt 'miniscule'. However, things change ... Oxford Dictionaries now says that 'miniscule' is… Continue reading A quick word … not a tiny spelling error
Look at these two headings: Warm up those vocal chords! The choir without vocal cords So which is correct? Vocal cords is correct. See Oxford Dictionaries. Um ... but so is vocal chords. Apparently. This Oxford Dictionaries entry explains that 'chord' is an 'acceptable' variant spelling of 'cord' when related to anatomy. Who knew? Oh,… Continue reading A quick word … vocal chords or cords?
Anchors and beech trees. I know, how come I’ve not covered these already? Anyway, the first bit of this will be a confession about how thick I can be, and the second bit is designed to take your mind off the first bit. Until very recently I thought that ‘anchors aweigh’ was spelt ‘anchors away’. Well, in… Continue reading Anchors, beech trees and boks
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