Are you familiar with the word typo? It’s often used to indicate that something we typed or wrote is wrong.
As an editor, I use the term to point out errors, finding after all these years that most folks don’t mind it as much as my saying “You goofed” or “You made a mistake.”
My favorite way of helping in this regard is merely saying or writing: “I saw a couple of typos.”
Today, let’s talk about the most common type of typo: using the wrong word and not seeing it.
Why don’t we see it?
See what it did above? I mistyped two words, and spellcheck underlined them in red.
That’s a huge help when we do something so obvious, right?
But.
What happens when/wen we/wee/whee use a word that sounds like the one/won we mean and don’t even
realize that there/they’re/their could be/bee more/moor than one of them that sound alike?
These terms are called homophones, words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have a different meaning. They can really play havoc in our writing if we’re not focusing on them!
So, how do we keep our thoughts safe and strong with the right words?
1. Pay attention to whatever grammar checker comes with your writing program. While not one of them is perfect, they’re still good at catching obvious (to them) goofs, which will cut down on what you have to do
manually.
2. Use the search function to check on homophones like affect/effect, it’s/its (there’s no such word as its’), you’re/your/yore, to/too/two – whatever words you often mistype (or just aren’t sure of). Ask the search function to find them one by one, and look carefully to see if you’ve used the right one. Then do it with the other one in the pair (or triplet).
And if you sometimes use the word public, search for pubic, which is a perfectly good word but
probably not the one you meant, to make sure it’s not hiding out somewhere.
PRO TIP: Always check for the word you DON’T want in those circumstances.
3. Make a list of the words you most often get confused about and keep it handy.
And if you’re on LinkedIn, do follow Sara Rosinsky (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sararosinsky/) because she publishes a post almost every day (with humor and insights) about difficult word usage.
Contact Info:
Susan Rooks
The Grammar Goddess
508 272-5120
SusanR@GrammarGoddess.com
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