Effective Writing. Elizabeth Manning Murphy
Sentences or fragments
1 F: … , we still went for a walk.
2 F: … , she was not tired.
3 F: …, I could have helped you
4 S
5 F …, I put on a warm jacket.
2.2.3 Check of some areas of spelling and grammar
1 It’s bad manners to accept an invitation when you’re already committed to another function.
2 As I have been unable to contact you by phone, I am writing to confirm your appointment as head of the Communication department.
3 The ladies’ shoe department is on the first floor and the men’s (shoe department) is on the second floor.
4 Everyone was surprised at the speed with which the winner’s name was announced.
OR The name of the winner, which he announced quickly, was a surprise to everyone.
3 Spelling
Poor spelling is one of the characteristics of poor writing. It defeats the purpose of words, which is to communicate meaning. It annoys readers and it is avoidable. Here are some hints for helping you to spell better than you do.
Spelling conventions vary among English-speaking countries. In Australian English we tend to write ‘recognise’ rather than ‘recognize’, whereas in British English it’s optional and in US English the first choice is ‘recognize’. Similar variable conventions apply to ‘colour’/ ‘color’ and ‘licence’ / ‘license’ – meaning the actual document. In Australian and British English we distinguish between ‘licence’ (the document) and ‘license’ – the verb meaning to permit something. US English spells both the document and the permitting verb ‘license’. Be aware that there are such differences, and consult a British English or US English dictionary if necessary. I have chosen to follow Australian English conventions of spelling for this book, using the Macquarie Dictionary as the reference.
3.1 Use your dictionary
Never guess at the spelling of a word if you know that you are a poor speller. If English is not your native language, take special care. English spellings are not always phonetic and you need to rely on your dictionary until you are comfortable writing in English. Become familiar with the format of your dictionary and what additional information you can learn from it besides spellings and definitions. Some people who are uncertain about spelling complain, ‘How can I use a dictionary when I don’t know what letter the word begins with?’ Take the word photograph. If you hear it for the first time, how do you know whether it begins with f or ph? Both have the same sound in English. Or the word through. Do we spell that threw, throo, thrwo, throu or through? There are words in English in which the oo sound is represented by each of these spellings – for example, chew, balloon, two, soup, throughout.
For fun, try to decipher this sentence which is spelt using letter combinations that produce sounds similar to the correct ones:
Thairs ghyti phoor lounch.
Here is the answer:
| Thairs | = There’s | air’s = ere’s (as in stairs) |
| ghyti | = fish | gh = f (as in enough) y = i (as in pyramid) ti = sh (as in nation) |
| phoor | = for | ph = f (as in photograph) oo = or (as in poor) |
| lounch | = lunch | ou = u (as in young) |
Is it any wonder that many people find some English spelling difficult?
Some useful advice for poor spellers is to write the word down, spelling it all possible ways, and then use a dictionary to check for the correct spelling. English spelling comes from a history of involvement with many languages. So studying the origin of a word will help you with the spelling of that word and of many others from the same source.
3.2 Read carefully
As you read anything – dictionary, novel, business letter, website – make a mental note of any new words you find. Practise using the new words and their derivatives. For example, if you see the word democratise for the first time, think about its origin – democracy (noun) from the Greek words for people and rule or power. From this word we can make derivatives such as democrat, democratic and even democratisation (although the last is rather unwieldy).
3.3 Memorise groups of words
You may have noticed that democratise ended in -ise. In some countries, it is -ize, but, as noted at the beginning of this chapter, this book follows Australian spelling conventions. There are other groups of words you can learn such as: confusing words – lay, lie and all their tenses; words from similar sources such as emigrate and immigrate; or words that look similar but have totally different meanings such as dessert and desert. There are hundreds more. Often the only way to remember their spellings is to memorise them in groups along with their meanings.
3.4 Analyse unknown words
Remember that words in English come from a number of sources and have been used to make new words by adding on to these existing words. This knowledge helps with spelling. When you come across a new word that has several parts, break it up into its parts. For example, take the word mismanagement. This can be broken up into the prefix mis-, the root word manage and the suffix -ment. You know how to spell mis- and -ment because they appear so often. The only part left to learn is manage and that is now easy. Even very long words can be broken up like this. Here is a word that is said to be one of the longest in the English language:
antidisestablishmentarianism
Spelling this could be a daunting task, but it becomes easy when you break it up into all its prefixes and suffixes:
anti- dis- establish -ment -arian -ism
Just spelling a word is not enough, of course. As you spell a word, try to understand its meaning. Even a very long word becomes meaningful when you break it up and realise that its meaning is the sum of the meanings of all its parts.
3.5 Make lists of troublesome words
There are some words that cause trouble to nearly everyone. We have already seen that there can be confusion in the use of the verbs lay and lie. Other words that often cause confusion include affect/effect, eminent/imminent, already/all ready, and principle/principal. I recommend that you note down any pairs or groups of words that confuse you, and the different meanings each has; you could also record any words that are unusual or difficult in any way. However, just listing words will not help you to learn them – refer to your list as often as possible, and try to use the words in an appropriate context whenever you have an opportunity. Unused words, like unused machinery, get rusty.
3.6 Follow the rules of spelling
Rules? Yes, there are some rules that can help you. If you try to understand these rules, any exceptions will then be easier to remember. The table below summarises some of the most troublesome spelling rules, with just a couple of examples and exceptions in each instance.
| Rule | Examples | Exceptions (some only) |
| IE / EI | ||
| I before E except after C, but only when the sound is ‘EE’ as in shield(Pronounce these as you read them, and note that they do not contain the ‘EE’ sound: neighbour, friend, height, foreign. Thus, they are not governed by this rule.) | achievebelieveshielddeceivereceiptceiling | seizeweird |
| Final |