Spell more good
When I started this blog, I promised not to make it a showcase for impertinent remarks.
Since then, I’ve written about punctuation, usage, words and their shades of meaning, and how to proofread for success. Certainly, none of these topics would be considered impertinent . . .
Now it’s time to move on to spelling. (I heard it. It was faint, but I heard that collective groan.) But instead of a post about commonly misspelled words and how to spell them correctly, I’m going to confine this post to a short quiz and a few sentences.
Please make note of which words from the list below are spelled incorrectly.
Abattoir
Aqueduct
Deciduous
Ensconce
Grotesque
Harass
Homogeneous
Indubitable
Knowledgeable
Lackadaisical
Lascivious
Lustre
Manageable
Maelstrom
Nuisance
Ophthalmology
Occurrence
Populous
Quarrelsome
Reiterate
Roguish
Sacrilegious
Successful
Temperamental
Timbre
Trapeze
Unanimous
Unnecessary
Venomous
Vicious
Whiting
Wintry
Woebegone
Wrath
Xylophone
How many did you guess? Three or four? Maybe even ten? Some of them look like they have to be misspelled right?
Not so fast. Every word on this list is spelled correctly. Review them closely. If you still don’t believe me, look them up in the dictionary.
But of course, that’s the point of this exercise. When in doubt about the spelling of a word, look it up.
This lesson was imprinted into my cerebral cortex by Dr. Griff Singer, my copyediting professor at UT. Let me set the stage . . . I was 20 years old and I showed up for the first day of copyediting class, confident that I would do well. I had made it through the lower division journalism classes, making good grades. I had a natural affinity of editing, so this class would be walk in the park.
Dr. Singer introduced himself and passed out a sheet with two columns of words. He told us to circle the ones that were spelled wrong. With great zeal, we attacked the list and soon all you could hear in the class was the sound of pencil scratches.
Dr. Singer walked around the room watching us circle. After about 15 minutes he told us to put our pencils down. That’s when we were informed that all the words on the list were correct. I looked at my paper — about half of the words were circled — and realized that I really didn’t know anything about copyediting.
Since that copyediting class, I’ve edited about 500 articles, 350 web pages, and 4 books. And I’ve never forgotten Dr. Singer’s lesson: there is no certainty in spelling. Don’t suppose, assume or guess, look it up.
A version of this article also appeared on Ragan Communication’s PR Daily.
And,relying on spell check doesn’t always work.
Thank you for not including vacuum.
As in ‘there is no reason to spell on a vacuum’.
Or in a vacuum or while vacuuming.