by Karen Bledsoe

Created on: March 31, 2008   Last Updated: April 20, 2009

Writers today must be their own editors. Decades ago, an editor's job was to clean up a writer's work, but in today's fast-paced publishing world with its bottom-line mentality, an editor's job has a lot more to do with acquiring and marketing manuscripts than actually editing them. That's why it's become the writer's responsibility to submit manuscripts that already sparkle and shine.

There's nothing like a misused work to take the sheen off of your work. Spell checkers will only tell you if a work is spelled correctly or not. They won't tell you if a word is used correctly. Even grammar checkers can't catch most gaffes when it comes to usage. You'll just have to go on a gaffe hunt yourself, hand-searching every line of your manuscript for these commonly misused words:

IT'S, ITS

"It's" is a contraction of "it is," while "its" is the possessive form. "It's a good thing that I caught the beast before its muzzle fell off."

PIQUED, PEAKED, PEEKED

When you have reached the top of your career, you have peaked. When have looked around the corner, you have peeked. If you see something small and furry around the corner, your curiosity is piqued.

BEAR, BARE

When "bear" is used as a verb, it means to tolerate or put up with something. "Bare" is an adjective meaning "naked." Therefore, you might say, "Bear with me while I stop to ask directions," but not, "Bare with me," unless you're asking someone to help you with your strip tease act. You would, however, say: "Paloma's pet lion bared his fangs at an approaching visitor."

ACCEPT, EXCEPT

To "accept" is to allow something. "Except" means to make an exception. "I will accept all manuscripts except those written in blood."

SHOULD HAVE

It's "I should have studied for the gravedigger's exam," not "I should of studied..." as some people mis-hear it.

AFFECT, EFFECT

With some exceptions found mainly in academic writing, affect is nearly always a verb, while effect is nearly always a noun. "Gum cracking affects me terribly. The effect of the sound is extreme nausea."

THERE, THEY'RE, THEIR

"There" refers to location. "They're" is a contraction of "they are." "Their" is possessive. "They're going to get into their hearse which is over there."

YOU'RE, YOUR, YORE

"You're" is a contraction of "you are," while "your" refers to possession. "Yore" refers to an era long gone. "Is that your new horse-drawn chariot, Milton? You're going to have fun galloping through the park in it, just like gladiators in the days of yore."

LESS, FEWER

In most cases, "fewer"

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