Homophones and Typos Hurt Your Writing
My name is Mark and I am your Hyper-Speller.
What is Hyper-Spelling? It is my unique talent to find spelling errors in published books. I am your spelling proofreader.
Do I find spelling errors in a lot of books? Yes, I do, I find spelling errors in over 95% of published books, mainstream publishers included.
How many books do I read in a year? On average I read a book a week, that’s 50 to 55 books each year. I review most of these books also, my book reviews are located atĀ https://www.wordrefiner.com
Do I ever find a book without spelling errors? Yes, one book a year on average is spelling error free.
I love to read and I hate spelling errors because they interrupt the pure pleasure of reading. I hope you will enjoy my posts as I talk about words that can trip most any writer at one time or another.
What is Word Refining?
Most any dictionary: Refine– to remove impurities and imperfections, to make purer.
Like a blacksmith with heat, hammer and anvil; I work the written word, purifying all spelling errors, to bring clarity to your message and voice. I have been doing this kind of work for all types of literature, fiction and non-fiction, casual and technical. For over 40 years I have refined many types of spelling errors which fall into 4 main categories:
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Misspelled words- words that are commonly caught by the spellcheckers on our computers. Some computers apparently do not have a spellchecker or the writer chooses not to use it. I see this type of error more frequently than expected.
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Misplaced words- words that are correctly spelled but used in the wrong context. Most spellcheckers are not very good at context. These types of errors are commonly caused by homophones and typographical errors.
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Missing words- words that are not there but should be.
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Multiple words- a word used too too many times in a sentence; like this sentence.
Of these errors, #2 is what I see the most. There are many reasons that these errors are so prevalent; not the least of is, that the English language is such a hodgepodge of bits and pieces of other languages, it is full of words that sound alike and have different spellings. These words are known as homophones and there are thousands in the English language.
Homophones that nearly everybody might be familiar with includes: to, too, two, or do, due, and dew. There are a lot of them in our everyday life, one of my favorites is right, write, rite, and wright. Quadruple homophones, are rare as a four-leaf clover. I will be doing a series on these homophone groups.
Typographical errors are caused by less than accurate typing. It is quite easy to write a correctly spelled word by typing only one letter wrong. Must, mist and most is a good example, the second letter of each word is different and all three of the vowels are side by side on our qwerty keyboard. Thank you Mr. Qwerty for that big favor. š There are other ways to make a valid word with typographical errors. I will write about many of these types of errors also.
Because so many of us have become accustomed to thinking like we speak, we write what we hear in our head without always taking the time to verify the proper spelling. If the spell checker sees a correctly spelled word on its list, then an invisible spelling error is created. It will sit there, silently smirking, until it is exposed and corrected. My mission is to reveal these errors and set writing straight.
The downside here is that we are constantly represented by our written words, if words are not correctly spelled, then we have not put our best foot forward. We may find the first impression we give is the only opportunity we get. Poor spelling can cause us not just problems but can cause us unanticipated hardships. In this competitive world we live in, it is essential to our success to always be at the top of our game in every way possible.
So, write right like a wright for a rite. I will be talking about these quadruple homophones and others in the future.
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