Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

Appendix G SPELLING, PUNCTUATION AND GRAMMAR

Mistakes give an impression of a lack of ability that may lead the reader to doubt the writer's competence as a specialist and a professional. Great care should be taken, therefore, to ensure correctness. Having a draft checked by colleagues or supervisor will help to eliminate such errors and may reveal other stylistic faults.

Technical note Some wordprocessors provide support to eliminate some typing mistakes. For instance, Word can be configured to automatically:

correct TWo INitial CApital letters in a word
put a capital letter at the start of each sentence
capitalise days of the week
correct any regular typing or spelling mistakes that you personally make. For instance, it can be set to automatically replace 'adn' by 'and', 'occurence' by 'occurrence' and 'recieve' by 'receive'.

Three works of reference that will make the writer's job easier are:

A thesaurus: "Roget's Thesaurus" - will often be useful to avoid repeating the same word too often, or to find a word that expresses an idea or meaning that you wish to convey.

Technical note Many wordprocessor programs, including Word, contain a Thesaurus.

A dictionary: the "Concise Oxford Dictionary" - this, or any other dictionary, will help you avoid making spelling mistakes.

Technical note Most wordprocessors include spell-checking facilities. However they will not detect mistakes such as the use of 'their' or 'they're' rather than 'there'. Thus the use of a computer spell-checker does not remove the need for direct checking.

A grammar reference: you will find "The Complete Plain Words" by Ernest Gowers or Fowler's "Modern English Usage" helpful in checking on the accepted usage of words or grammatical constructions.

Technical note A number of computerised grammar checkers are available. For instance Word contains a grammar checker. They provide some support but do not remove the need for direct checking. Style-checking software is available and usually provides a more sophisticated level of support.

Note: Webster's Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus are both available on the internet at URL http://www.niss.ac.uk. Also a dictionary and thesaurus are available at www.dictionary.com and www.thesaurus.com

1. Spell-checkers

Don't rely upon spell-checkers alone to sort out your spelling otherwise you might find yourself writing something rather unfortunate like these! Re-read work carefully as well.

"Instead of a fortnight in Paris we had a wee in Provence."

(Guardian, Lost Consonants, 20 June 98)

"I those the expert evaluation method."
".. they will be required to think allowed"
"... installs it self on the hard drive"
"A read light illuminates to warm you"
"This is worse than any thin else"
"There was no enough space on the hard disc"
"There are to be trails of the new system"
"Adequate rest breaks where provided for employees"

Recent student reports

2. Common Student Spelling Errors

Most of these have been taken from recent student reports.

a v an	a (one) v an (one - before a word starting with a vowel ) eg ... opening an original data source
access v assess	access (get at) v assess (to judge)
allot v a lot	allot (to assign) v a lot (many)
allowed v aloud	allowed (permitted) v aloud (heard)
anything v any thing	anything (a pronoun) v any thing (usually incorrect)
are	see our
bandwidth v band width	bandwidth (communication capacity) v band width (width of a band)
bare v bear	bare (nude) v bear (animal)
board v bored	board (piece of wood) v bored (teenager)
brake v break	brake (stop) v break (smash)
businesses v business's	businesses (several businesses) v business's (belongs to one)
can't	contraction of 'can not'
check v cheque	check (correct) v cheque (money)
coarse v course	coarse (crude) v course (race)
commonplace v common place	commonplace (frequent) v common place
company's v companies v companies'	company's (belongs to a company) v companies (several companies) v companies' (belongs to several companies)
could've	contraction of 'could have' - too informal for reports
definitely	note spelling
dependant v dependent	dependant (noun: a relative) v dependent (adjective: being dependent)
don't	contraction of 'do not'
flaw v floor	flaw (error) v floor (in a room)
form v from
'gonna' (not a word)	going to
hasn't	contraction of 'has not'
have v of v off	have (to possess) v of (part of something) v off (to take off). Most commonly confused in speech. Examples: ".. the method that could have been used was direct observation." "Please may I have a slice of that cake." "Get your kit off"
haven't	contraction of 'have not'
hour v our v are	see our
I'd	contraction of 'I would' or 'I should'
'innit' (not a word)	usually used to mean "isn't it" (contraction of 'is not it')
input v inputted (not a word)	input v inputted (not a word) eg .. the data was input last week
isn't	contraction of 'is not'
its v it's	its (belongs to it - note that this is a possessive without an apostrophe) v it's (contraction of 'it is')
knew v new	knew (knowledge) v new (just purchased)
know v now	know (knowledge) v now (this moment)
no-one	not 'no one'
of v off v have	see have
our v hour v are	our (belongs to us) v hour (60 minutes) v are (to be). Example: "These are our hours of work"
pane v pain	pane (window) v pain (hurt)
peace v piece	peace (calm) v piece (bit)
plain v plane	plain (not fancy) v plane (airplane)
practice v practise	practice (repeated performance, custom) v practise (doctor's)
principle v principal	principle (source, rule) v principal (head of a college)
red v read	red (colour) v read (a book)
right v write	right (not left) v write (to write)
shouldn't've	an error intended as a contraction of 'should not have'
stationary v stationery	stationary (still) v stationery (paper)
status v statues	status (current position) v statues (sculpture)
there v their v they're	there (over there) v their (belonging to them) v they're (contraction of 'they are')
there'll	contraction of 'there will' - too informal for reports
there's	contraction of 'there is'
they'll	contraction of 'they will' - too informal for reports
threw v through	threw (a ball) v through (a gate)
to v too v two	to (to jump) v too (also, extremely) v two (2). Example: "This program is still too complex to read"
wait v weight	wait (hang around) v weight (kilos)
walkthru'	contraction of 'walkthrough' but too colloquial
weak v week	weak (not strong) v week (7 days)
were v where	were (in the past) v where (a place)
weather v whether	weather (the rain) v whether (if). Example: "The forecaster determined whether the weather would be wet today."
whole v hole	whole (complete) v hole (in the ground)
won v one	won (a game) v one (1)
won't	contraction of 'will not'
wood v would	wood (trees) v would (eg I would go)
you'd	contraction of 'you would' - too informal for reports
you'll	contraction of 'you will' - too informal for reports
your v you're	your (belonging to you) v you're (contraction for 'you are')

Text messaging abbreviations may be acceptable for very informal communication between friends but are not acceptable in other contexts. You certainly should never use them in written work. So do not use abbreviations such as:

4	for 'for'
2	for 'to' or 'too'
u	for 'you'
gbfn	for 'goodbye for now'
c	for 'see'

3. Adjectives of Comparison

The simple form of the adjective eg a big book
The comparative form used when comparing two objects eg Fred is bigger than Jas
The superlative form when comparing more than two objects eg the biggest person is Dean
For longer adjectives need to use 'more' and 'most' instead

adjective	comparative	superlative
simple examples
big	bigger	biggest
great	greater	greatest
small	smaller	smallest
low	lower	lowest
old	older	oldest
examples using more/most
beautiful	more beautiful	most beautiful
ignorant	more ignorant	most ignorant
examples of exceptions
bad	worse	worst
good	better	best
little	less	least
many	more	most

So it is wrong to say:

".. would be able to perform the task more better"

".. my project will be too bigger a task"

student reports, 1998

4. Punctuation

Punctuation	Explanation	Examples
full stop (.)	i. shows where a sentence ends ii. can be used in abbreviations but being used less now	i. This is a sentence. ii. ... computers e.g. unix machines...at the B.B.C.
comma (,)	i. separates parts of a sentence ii. a pair of commas 'brackets' an aside iii. separates items in a list	i. For example, it is possible ... ii. The girls, who are part of the team, left early today. iii. ... common computer applications such as wordprocessors, spreadsheets, database and graphics software.
colon (:)	i. To introduce a list ii. To separate two contrasting ideas	i. There are several pieces of software: spreadsheets, databases and graphics. ii. Computers are ubiquitous: they bring much good to society.
semicolon (;)	Separates two statements which could each form a separate sentence but are closely related	Thank you for your letter of 11 December; we apologise for the delay in replying.
apostrophe (')	Used to show a possessive or to show a letter is missing.	See section 5 below.
quotation marks (")	Used to indicate words are taken from elsewhere. If a whole sentence is inside the quotation marks then so is its full stop	According to Joyce (1994) it "was an appalling disaster". See also appendix C.
exclamation mark (!)	Used to end a sentence which expresses surprise, astonishment, shock, horror or dismay	That party was awful!
question mark (?)	Used to end a question - but only if it really is a question	Will you come out today?
parentheses ( )	Used to include something peripheral and so it may be better to leave it out. If a whole sentence is inside the brackets then so is the full-stop.	Parentheses are also a bit of a habit (like this).

5. The Use of the Apostrophe

The apostrophe is often mis-used so don't be mislead by examples you see. However its correct use can prevent ambiguity. Apostrophes are used to indicate possessives (ie when something is possessed by something) and contractions. They are never used for non-possessive plurals. Don't fall for this common error.

Usage	Examples
Contractions
Used to show when one or more letters are missing	i. "wasn't" (meaning "was not") ii. "Today's the day for..." (meaning "Today is the day for ...") iii. "It's no concern of mine ..." (meaning "It is no concern of mine ...") iv "Doesn't anybody have ..." (meaning "Does not anybody have ...")
Possessives
a. Used as ('s) for possessives	i. "The judge's wig was ..." ii. "The computer's memory is huge"
b. Add only (') if the word already ends with 's' and is plural	i. "Several players' cars were..." ii. "... many businesses' trade" (plural)
c. Add ('s) or (') if the word ends in 's' and is singular	i. "This is Mr Jones' car" OR "This is Mr Jones's car" ii. "... a business' trade" OR "a business's trade" (singular)
Plurals
It is incorrect to use an apostrophe for non-possessive plurals	i. It is NOT "the lecturer spoke to a class of student's" BUT "the lecturer spoke to a class of students" ii. It is NOT "apple's 30p per lb" BUT "apples 30p per lb" iii. It is "one LAN and several LANs"

ANSWERS:

Mother-to-be attacked on waste land.
Never mind: people who dislike cats are in a minority.
Once she had the dress, off she would go in search of matching shoes, gloves and a handbag.

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