by Len Morse

Created on: September 06, 2007   Last Updated: November 02, 2009

If you want to write a term paper, compose a letter, author a book, or even jot down a note, you want legible words and phrases that will reach your audience easily. You want to avoid confusing them and misrepresenting yourself with misspelled words. Unfortunately, many folks don't check their writing for commonly misused words and phrases that are found in hundreds of web sites and other media.

Before you can expect readers to buy your product, laugh at your joke, attend your event, answer your question, or enjoy your story, you must first focus on your text's basic building blocks: Spelling. Knowing how to spell certain words and how to use certain phrases will help you create an understandable document, sign, invitation, article, or other written piece.

This misuse goes beyond the innocent typo that inevitably occurs when you jab the wrong letter on the keyboard; that happens to everybody and is easily caught. No, this is when you have a word or phrase in your head, but you end up writing a similar-sounding word or phrase with a different spelling and meaning than what you intended.

These words with different meanings are called homophones. The act of using one word when you meant to use another is called a malapropism. Nasty little critters.

When you don't check your spelling and allow errors, your readers see you as unprofessional. Yes, we humans are prone to error, but to make a good impression, double-checking your word and phrase spelling is vital.

== Proofread Everything ==

Time is money, especially in business. Every day, multitudes of people invest money, write reports, publish books, display announcements, and strive to make some form of progress in this crazy world. Some may be tempted to forgo the editing and proofreading that should be all over their written projects like white on rice. That is a big mistake.

Do you use Spell Checker and Grammar Checker software? Kudos for doing so, but those programs can only get you so far. Consider the following sentence:

"George told his brother the tale of the Manx, a breed of cat that has no tail."

Are there any misspellings? No. Is there any bad grammar? No. Nevertheless, we have two words (tale and tail) that sound exactly the same, but have different meanings. If you're not aware of the many spelling differences out there, you're setting yourself up for trouble.

== Common Word Misspellings ==

The following are some commonly misused words that occur on a daily basis. Each is accompanied by its part-of-speech

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