by Davina Lennon

Created on: October 28, 2009   Last Updated: July 02, 2010

 You know you have the ability to put together amusing, interesting or thought provoking articles that leaves the reader enthralled to the last sentence. This certainly can put you onto the right road to reaching your goal of becoming a successful writer. But all your efforts could be in jeopardy if spelling mistakes litter your well constructed piece of work.

For many readers it can be enough to throw the whole article into the nearest bin if their concentration is continually interrupted by spelling mistakes. It’s almost impossible to follow any piece of written work if your mind keeps focusing on yet another misspelled word.

But saying that, a few or minor spelling mistakes isn’t an issue for some people. That’s okay if you’re writing a piece of work that will be seen by a few for no financial benefit. Unfortunately this doesn’t apply if you want a successful outcome for the hard work you put into your writing and sent it to a publisher or editor.

 Your attempts to be professional will come to nothing if you present your work without thoroughly checking for both spelling and grammar mistakes. Rejection is often the only way a publisher or editor will go, especially if you are an unknown writer. Unlike the great Ernest Hemmingway who would insist his editors were hired especially for the job of correcting any spelling mistakes he might have made.

The use of spell checker is a huge asset to all writers and cannot be underestimated in its use. But we’re all human and even the most prolific and practiced writer will certainly make spelling errors occasionally. But checking and re-checking for mistakes will show the reader that time and effort have gone into producing a skillfully and well presented piece of work. This in turn makes your writing enjoyable to read and gives the reader the feeling of wanting more.

It’s obviously an enormous benefit if you possess good spelling skills from the word go, it makes for easier and quicker editing of your work. But not everyone is blessed with the ability to spell correctly and using spell checker can be a futile enterprise if you don’t recognize the spelling of words that sound alike but have different meanings. Getting someone to proofread your work before submitting it would be advantageous as you save yourself a lot of heartache being told that your work was unprofessional because of the numerous spelling mistakes made.

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