Writers, Don’t Give Up the Day Job Until You Pass Our Spelling Quiz

by My Web Writers

Because most people compose on word processors with squiggly red lines and spell checkers to point out errors, there are few excuses for misspelled words. Most mistakes are chalked up to typos or common homophones that slip through the cracks. Take our spelling quiz to brush up your skills and focus on commonly switched homophones and misspelled words. The first section focuses on words that sound the same but have different meanings. Often writers accidentally use the wrong one. The second section includes words off Dictionary.com’s frequently misspelled word list. Test your spelling knowledge!

Commonly Misused Homophones

Insert the correct word into each blank in the sentence below:

1) The child _______ refused to eat her vegetables. She was ______ going to be in trouble.

a)  Defiantly   b) Definitely

2) The woman relished in the _______ as her shoes were a perfect ______ to her new dress.

a) complement    b) compliment

3) The company was happy to ______ the proposal, _______ they asked for some minor adjustments.

a) accept  b) except

4) The school’s ______  felt her _______  duty was to support the teachers and keep the school running with discipline.

a) principal b) principle

5) The father was concerned with slimming his ______, bu the also didn’t want to _____ food from the table.

a) waist  b) waste

Frequently Misspelled Words

Select the correct spelling below:

6) a state of equality, a scale, a equilibrium:

a) balance b) ballance c) balence

7) Terrible; inspiring awe:

a) awfull b) aweful  c) awful

8) One who robs or steals:

a) burglar  b) burgler

9) Not a professional, a beginner, a hobbyist:

a) amatuer  b) amateur  c) amature

10) A promise or warranty:

a) garantee b) guarantee c) garentee

11) A thousand years:

a) millennium b) millenium c) milennium

12) Something one owns:

a) posession b) possesion  c) possession

13) A place to go out to eat:

a) restarant  b) restaurant  c) restaraunt

14) To suggest or praise:

a) recommend  b) recomend  c) reccommend

15) A machine that cleans your floors; an empty space:

a) vaccuum b) vacuum  c) vacume

Answer key

1.  a, b  2. b, a  3. a, b  4. a, b  5. a, b  6. a  7. c 8. a  9. b  10. b  11. a  12. c 13. b 14. a 15. b

For more help, consult this list of Commonly Missused Words to make sure you’re not just spelling he word correctly, but that you’re using the right word to begin with. You can also continue to test your spelling on your smart device using the A+ Spelling App. My Web Writers also has additional resources for making your copy editing swifter and more accurate. Give your writers our Grammar Test and read our tips for how to Be a Better Editor. ~Kasey

What Every Writer Should Remember from Freshmen English

By My Web Writers

Photo courtesy of SingleMomFinance.com

If your high school textbooks are gathering dust or long recycled, and you can’t remember how exactly you spent those arduous academic days, it may be time to brush up on a few of the basics from high school English, even if just to see which rules have changed.

In high school, teachers break down the components of a piece of writing so that students will have a vocabulary to help them in the writing and revision process. Seasoned writers can also benefit from evaluating their work with these tools. Let’s take a look at some of these components.

Audience

The audience is the group of people you expect or want to read your work. It is usually good to have an age group, education level, and some demographics in mind. This can be as simple as people who like pie or more specific like women with children in their thirties and forties. Regardless, your language and ideas need to be appropriate for the people you expect to read your work.

Consider what background information may be necessary, what important terms may need defining, and what kind of voice will appeal to your audience. When writing for a medical journal, the language and ideas may be more complex, because the writer assumes that readers have a certain level of familiarity with the discipline. Whereas when explaining a complex medical condition in an article on al site geared toward the general public, more familiar language may be used along with metaphors and similes that make the information accessible to those without a medical education.

If you’re worried about accessing a specific grade-level, Microsoft Word has a handy tool that estimates the grade-level and readability of your writing based on word, sentence, and paragraph complexity.  This can be enabled when you click on File, Options, Proofing, and check Readability Statistics. These statistics appear after you spell check your document.

 Purpose

What is your piece trying to accomplish? After reading, do you want readers to buy a specific brand of shoe, agree with a political argument, or know how to bake a cake? This should be clear to you the writer and should be stated directly or indirectly in your work. In an academic paper, the purpose is often encountered in the thesis statement. A thesis states what the paper plans to prove or explain. It is usually located at the end of the introduction paragraph.

 Organization

Regardless of the kind of writing you are doing, some method of organization is always necessary. Some common structures include, cause and effect, chronological order, and compare and contrast.  A recipe is usually organized with an ingredient list and then the steps are described in chronological order. A blog post about a political issue may compare and contrast the two sides of an issue by spending the first section explaining one side of the issue, it’s pros and cons, and then in the next section considering the other side.

In essays, each paragraph usually proves or addresses an aspect of the argument. One or more paragraphs may represent a point the author is trying to prove. Once that point has been supported, the writer is ready to begin a new paragraph.

 Evidence and Analysis

Any work that is making a claim requires some kind of evidence and analysis. Evidence includes the facts that support an argument. Analysis is the author’s explanation of why the evidence is important or how it relates to the argument. Evidence helps the writer to establish his or her authority and support ideas. Analysis helps the reader to make the same connections between the argument and the evidence that the writer is making.

 Grammar and Spell Check

Grammar and spelling mistakes can be off-putting for readers and threaten a writer’s credibility, especially where there are so many resources at hand to aid in proofreading.  Remember that different styles of writing often have different rules and call for different styles of documentation. Style guides are available on writing center websites for many colleges and universities. Purdue Online Writing Lab has an especially good guide for APA and MLA styles. Remember that Microsoft Word has spelling and grammar check, but doesn’t catch everything and sometimes makes unnecessary changes. So it is always good to proofread again. And of course, never turn in a piece that you haven’t read more than once.

Happy writing.  Class dismissed.

~Lindsey

Give Your Content Writers a Grammar Quiz

By My Web Writers

Maybe your content writers learned it sitting in a wooden desk with a teacher in front of the classroom writing on a chalkboard. Maybe it was in a computer lab and they learned at their own pace. No matter how they learned, it’s often too easy to forget the basic rules of grammar. Give this grammar quiz to your content writers as a review of grammar basics.

1. Choose the letter of the correctly written sentence.

a. Jennifer went to the store and bought eggs, milk, cheese, and bread.

b. Jennifer went to the store and bought eggs, milk, cheese and bread.

c. Jennifer went to the store and bought, eggs, milk, cheese, and bread.

Answer: A

When listing three or more and they are linked with “and” or “or,” put a comma after all items except the last one.

2. Choose the letter of the correctly written sentence.

a. After the movie we went to grab a bite to eat.

b. After the movie, we went to grab a bite to eat.

c. After the movie we went, to grab a bite to eat.

Answer: B

A transitional phrase holds content together. Put a comma after a transitional phrase.

3.  Using a semicolon, how could you combine the following two sentences?

Jason has worked for the company for 30 years.

He is an important part of the manufacturing team.

Answer: Jason has worked for the company for 30 years; he is an important part of the manufacturing team.

Use a semicolon where you would normally use a period. A semicolon is used to link two sentences related in topic.

4. Choose the letter of the correctly written sentence.

a. Mr. Kline teaches four subjects: algebra, geometry, physics, and history.

b. Mr. Kline teaches: four subjects, algebra, geometry, physics and history.

c. Mr. Kline: teaches four subjects- algebra, geometry, physics and history.

Answer: A

Use a colon after an independent clause and before a list.

5. Which of the following sentences is correct?

a. It’s engine is so overused that its going to collapse after the race.

b. Its engine is so overused that it’s going to collapse after the race.

c. Its engine is so overused that its going to collapse after the race.

Answer: B

“Its” and “it’s” are homophones – words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings.

its = possessive

it’s = “it is”

There are many homophones that are often used incorrectly: their, there, they’re, your, you’re, whether, weather, accept, and except. Even the most experienced content writer can get his or her homophones mixed up.

6. Which of the following sentences is correct?

a. Smith’s resume impressed the manager’s at the office.

b. Smiths resume impressed the managers at the office.

c. Smith’s resume impressed the managers at the office.

Answer: C

Use an apostrophe to show possession (the resume belongs to Smith)

7. Which of the following examples of dialogue is correct?

a. “Jefferson Products will soon be expanding its company around the globe,” said Jones.

b. “Jefferson Products will soon be expanding its company around the globe” said Jones.

c. “Jefferson Products will soon be expanding its company around the globe.” Said Jones.

Answer: A

Punctuation at the end of a quote inside the end quotes before telling who said it. Use a comma where you would otherwise use a period.

~Natalie

Verb Tense Review

by My Web Writers

It may seem like a basic skill, but how many blogs or articles have you read that left you questioning your verb tense knowledge? Check out this verb tense tutorial to test how much you really know.

Past Tense Verbs…

Tell an action or event that happened in the past. Most past tense verbs end in –ed, but there are some special irregular verbs that take on a different look and sound.

Past Tense Verb Example:

Jump becomes jumped.   He jumped over the fence.

Irregular Past Tense Verb Example:

Take becomes took.   They took our candy.

Present Tense Verbs…

Tell a repeated or similar unchanging action.  Present tense verbs exist right now.

Present Tense Verb Example:

He chooses a favorite color.

Future Tense Verbs…

Describe actions that will happen in the future. Future tense verbs can only be formed using will or shall before the main action verb.

Future Tense Verb Example:

They will finish their speech tomorrow.

Subject/Verb Agreement

When a subject is plural it usually ends in “s”. A plural subject’s verb must also be plural (not ending in “s”).  In turn, when a subject is singular, the verb that accompanies it must also be singular (most often ending in “s”).

Examples of Plural Subject/Verb Agreement:

 Incorrect: The animals plays in the forest.

 Correct: The animals play in the forest.

Examples of Singular Subject/Verb Agreement

 Incorrect: The animal play in the forest.

 Correct: The animal plays in the forest.

Proofread to ensure that your piece is grammatically correct and free of verb tense or subject/verb agreement errors.

~Lauren

Which vs. That – 2 Schools of Thought

by My Web Writers

Which is that – or is it? This question plagues users of the English language trying to communicate in a more sophisticated fashion. Let’s address this issue by explaining the basics of relative pronouns and then by looking at the two schools of thought driving the choice between that and which.

RELATIVE PRONOUNS
A pronoun is a word that allows one to reference a previously stated noun without having to repeat the noun. Consider the following:

Martha makes friends easily. She has a fun personality.

In the first sentence, Martha is one of the nouns. The second sentence elaborates further on Martha but, in an effort to avoid redundancy, uses the pronoun “she” instead of Martha.

Why are the pronouns described as relative? Relative simply means that a common element or idea exists between two sentences or phrases. Consider the two following sentences.

Martha is reading a book. The book is on the table.

“The book” relates the two sentences together.

To express the above idea in two, short sentences recalls the simplicity and choppiness of the “See Jack run” books used when learning to read. This works if you are writing children’s books. However, if writing for a more discerning audience, a higher level of sophistication is expected. The correct use of relative pronouns helps writers, print and web writers alike, meet that level of sophistication.

THAT vs. WHICH
The choice between that and which enjoys at least two basic schools of thought.

1. These relative pronouns have their own unique environments which prohibit using one in place of the other.
2. These relative pronouns are interchangeable in the sense that where which is appropriate, that can also be used.

Let’s consider the two schools of thought.

UNIQUE
If the clause being embedded inside of another sentence is essential, one uses that. If the embedded clause is non-essential, the relative pronoun is which. Since the appropriate environment hinges on the notion of essential or non-essential, let me explain. Essential means that the additional information of the embedded clause bears real weight on the sentence’s meaning. Non-essential means that the additional information can be removed without compromising the sentence’s meaning.

Here are some examples of essential and non-essential clauses as used with that or which.

ESSENTIAL
I need the map. The map gives directions to the airport.

The map is the common element of both sentences. Because the information in the second sentence references a specific map, the one that gives directions to the airport, the relative pronoun is that. The combined sentence reads:

I need the map that gives directions to the airport.

NON-ESSENTIAL
My son’s jacket fell in the puddle. I just washed the jacket yesterday.

The jacket is the relative concept found in both sentences. In this instance, because the jacket having been washed the day before has no bearing on the jacket ending up in the puddle, the correct relative pronoun is which.

My son’s jacket, that I just washed yesterday, fell in the puddle.

INTERCHANGEABLE
Those espousing the thought that the two relative pronouns are interchangeable would argue that, in the case where the embedded clause is non-essential, one has the option of using either that or which. Note that the overlap of that and which only works with non-essential clauses. If the embedded clause be essential to the meaning of the sentence then that must be used.

Should the common element of the two sentences be a person, then the relative pronoun would be who. However, that has been used in relative clauses dealing with people. For example:

The candidate that is working the crowd hopes to win over the voters.

CONCLUSION
I began the study of that vs. which with the questioning statement “Which is that – or is it?” The answer depends upon the school of thought one espouses. For some, because which and that are interchangeable, then the statement “which is that” is correct. For those who espouse that each relative pronoun works only in a very specific environment, then “which is that” is not correct. That will always be that, and which will always be which. In the end, consistency is key. Choose your school of thought and then follow it on a consistent basis.

~Marni