by Ron Tocknell

Created on: August 28, 2007

Spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors are now so common on the Internet that it is becoming acceptable. This is a great pity. Adhering to the rules of spelling, punctuation and grammar does not restrict the creativity of writing. On the contrary, they are valuable tools for effective expression and communication.

I can appreciate that having to be watchful of the rules of language may inhibit flow but this argument does not justify actually publishing work with errors left without correction. If you must write freely without worrying about punctuation etc., then, at least, go back over the completed piece and make corrections where required. By far the best approach, of course, is to get into the habit of correct usage as you work. This might initially restrict flow but only until you get used to writing in this way. It's always best to endure the short term problems associated with any long term solution.

In this article, I want to look at some of the most common errors encountered not only on private blogs but even on professionally produced Web sites produced for 'Blue-Chip' companies. Some are fairly trivial but worth mentioning while others are absolute howlers that should never get past the proof-reading stage. I rather suspect that this may be the problem. If work is only proof-read on screen, many errors will be missed. It's always better to print out work for proof-reading. Go through it once and mark errors. Then go through it again and the chances are that you'll be marking errors that you missed with the initial check. Go through it again and, if you still find errors that you've missed to date, it will require a further proof-reading. Repeat this process until you've managed two consecutive proof-readings without further errors. Then correct each error on screen, print out and (Yep. You guessed it) proof-read once more. Only if no further errors have been found should you then publish.

Spelling errors that Spell Check won't pick up on:

We tend to rely on spell check facilities too heavily. Consequently, words that are spelled correctly but are wrong in context often get through to publishing. For example: The shoes were to tight. Here, the word "to" was used where "too" would have been correct. However "to" is a word that spell check would recognise as a correctly spelled word. Always check spelling manually as well as using spell check to avoid this pitfall. Here are some other words that are frequently used in the wrong context:

Affect or effect?
Although

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