Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 3 Volume 9 | Page 23

mistake, and it even slips by editors sometimes.
Just remember, when you’re using “there” to
refer to a place, there is no room for “i”.
The next one is not seen as frequently, but
is one to be aware of.
Alex and I went to a bizarre, and there
were people wandering around in bazaar
costumes.
The literal translation of this sentence
would be: We went to a weird and people wan-
dered around in a marketplace of street vendors
costumes. Not quite spot on. Also not as easy to
remember, but there are three “a’s” in the mar-
ketplace.
The next two spellings are often confused,
and the meanings are definitely different.
I couldn’t wait to complement Suzie for
hiring the compliment of 15 researchers we
needed.
Okay, so you couldn’t wait to complete or fill
Suzie for hiring the praise of 15 researchers. A
little bit of nonsense, if you ask us. It’s handy to
remember that complement (something that
fills, completes or works well together) is
spelled similar to complete and compliment
and praise both have an “i”.
The list goes on and on and on. Of course
you won’t remember everything and can’t be
expected to check every word you write. But,
here’s what you can do. Get to know the real
offenders like there and their, it’s and its, and
commit those to memory. You won’t have to
flag them often. Pretty soon your brain will get
the message.
On other offenders, try to make a mental
note when someone catches your error. You
might even keep your own list or buy one of
many wrong word dictionaries to keep handy.
One of the steps on the ladder to appearing
professional is for your work to mean what you
actually intended. So, be careful of righting the
wrong word. We just did that on purpose. See
how easy it was for me to use the wrong write
and not have it caught by SpellCheck?
B OOKS BY M IKE
B OOKS BY M ORGAN
T HE -58- MOST - COMMONLY - MISUSED - WORDS - AND - PHRASES
E XCERPTED FROM A 2015 ARTICLE IN THE I NDEPENDENT UK
H ERE ARE THE MAIN ONES TO LOOK OUT FOR —P ITFALLS THAT CAN BECOME P RATFALLS
•
•Adverse means detrimental and does not mean
averse or disinclined.
Correct: "There were adverse effects." / "I'm not
averse to doing that."
F ALL 2019
•Appraise means to ascertain the value of and
does not mean to apprise or to inform.
Correct: "I appraised the jewels." / "I apprised
him of the situation."
P AGE 19
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE