Tips On How To Spell Better
English is a difficult language – to speak, and to spell correctly when writing. Other languages are difficult too, but English really is tough. Often there are two or more ways to spell a word. As an example: I used the words “to,” “too” and “two” in the first three sentences of this article – three different words that all sound the same but are spelled differently. English is my native language but even so I’m always trying to improve my spelling. If English is your second or third language, correct spelling can be an even greater challenge. So what’s a writer, or speller, to do?
Here are some tips on how to become a better speller. Like most things, it requires that you set “better spelling” as your objective and you need to work at it, all of the time!
Read as much as possible and focus on the spelling of the words. The more you read, the better your spelling will become.
Similarly, write as much as possible. Nothing helps spelling as much as writing and doing so with a focus on spelling correctly.
Pronounce words correctly? Many people mispronounce words and therefore think those words are spelled like their mispronunciations. An aid to written spelling is to phonetically spell the word, but if you mispronounce the word, then you may never spell it correctly. Examples of words typically mispronounced are Library and Nuclear. Do you say Library or Libary? And do you say Nuclear or Nucular? The first is correct for both words and the second is incorrect.
Keep a small notebook in which to write words that personally give you problems. Make notes to yourself to help remember their proper use and spelling, as well as plurals or other forms of these words. Refer to this notebook daily and set an objective to master the spelling of some number of words each day – say five or ten words per day.
If you have a spell checker on your computer, use it. Most word-processing programs offer a spell check feature.
Even better, invest in a fully featured English writing software program. Such programs have the extra power to ensure that improper contextual use of words like “two,” “too,” and “to,” is detected and corrected. The typical word processor “spell check” function is not sophisticated enough to detect and correct these types of improper word usages.
All of the above are simple “tips” or practices you can follow to improve your spelling. There are also “rules” that better define proper spelling, but those are topics for other articles. The main thing to remember is to practice, practice, practice! In spelling, like most things in life, repetition leads to success.
Jack Osborne is a published author, entrepreneur (was an executive or founder in four successful start-up companies), and an avid sailor on the open ocean. His love, beyond teaching people how to develop their full potential, is writing heartwarming and entertaining books and short stories on the human experience, as well as informative articles on the art of writing. See more on his website, http://www.ErrorFreeGrammar.com
for improving your writing skills.
Article from articlesbase.com
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