The Century Handbook of Writing Part 41

No one is able to spell all unusual words on demand. But every one must spell correctly even unusual words in formal writing. The writer has time or must take time to consult a dictionary. The best dictionaries are _Webster's New International Dictionary_, the _Standard Dictionary_ (less conservative than Webster's), the _Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia_ (Volume 2 of the _Century_ is the best place to look for proper names), and _Murray's New English Dictionary_ (very thorough, each word being ill.u.s.trated with numerous quotations to show historical development). An abridged edition of one of these (the price is one to three dollars) should be accessible to each student who cannot buy the larger volumes. The best are: _Webster's Secondary School Dictionary_, _Funk and Wagnalls Desk Standard Dictionary_, the _Oxford Concise Dictionary_, and _Webster's Collegiate Dictionary_.

But the student will be spared constant recourse to the dictionary, and will save himself much time and many humiliations, if he will employ the rules and principles which follow.

=Recording Errors=

=70. Keep a list of all the words you misspell, copying them several times in correct form.= Concentrate your effort upon a few words at a time--upon those words which you yourself actually misspell. The list will be shorter than you think. It may comprise not more than twenty or thirty words. Unless you are extraordinarily deficient, it will certainly not comprise more than a hundred or a hundred and fifty. Find where your weakness lies; then master it. You can accomplish the difficult part of the task in a single afternoon. An occasional review, and constant care when you write, will make your mastery permanent.

After this, and only after this, begin slowly to learn the spelling of words which you do not yourself use often, but which are a desirable equipment for all educated men. See the list under 79. _Concentrate your efforts upon a few words at a time._ It is better to know a few exactly than a large number hazily. Form the mental habit of being always right with a small group of words, and extend this group gradually.

Exercise:

Prepare for your instructor a corrected list of words which you have misspelled in your papers to the present time.

=p.r.o.nouncing Accurately=

=71. Avoid slovenly p.r.o.nunciation.= Careful articulation makes for correctness in spelling.

Watch the vowels of unaccented syllables; give them distinct (not exaggerated) utterance, at least until you are familiar with the spelling. Examples: _sep=a=rate_, _opp=o=rtunity_, _ever=y=body_, _soph=o=more_, _d=i=vine_.

Sound accurately all the consonants between syllables, and do not sound a single consonant twice. Examples: _can=d=idate_, _gover=n=ment_, _su=r=prise_ (not _supp=r=ise_), _o=m=i=ss=ion_ (compare _o=cc=a=s=ion_), _de=f=er_ (compare _di=ff=er_).

Sound the _g_ in final _-ing_. Examples: _eating_, _running_.

p.r.o.nounce the _-al_ of adverbs derived from adjectives in _-ic_ or _-al_. Examples: _tragically_, _occasionally_, _generally_, _ungrammatically_.

Do not transpose letters; place each letter where it belongs. Examples: _p=er=spiration_ (not _p=re=spiration_), _tra=g=edy_ (not _tra=d=e=g=y_).

Note.--The principle of phonetic spelling as stated above applies to many words, but by no means to all. The Simplified Spelling Board would extend this principle by changing the spelling of words to correspond with their actual sounds. It recommends such forms as _tho_, _thru_, _enuf_, _quartet_, _catalog_, _program_. If the student employs these forms, he must use them consistently. Many writers oppose simplified spelling; many advocate it; many compromise. Others desire to supplant our present alphabet with one more nearly phonetic, and prefer, until this fundamental reform takes place, to preserve our present spelling as it is.

Exercise:

Copy the following words slowly, p.r.o.nouncing the syllables as you write: _accidentally_, _accommodate_, _accurately_, _artistically_, _athletics_ (not _atheletics_), _boundary_, _candidate_, _cavalry_, _commission_, _curiosity_, _defer_, _definite_, _description_, _despair_, _different_, _dining room_, _dinned_, _disappoint_, _divide_, _divine_, _emphatically_, _eighth_, _everybody_, _February_, _finally_, _G.o.ddess_, _government_, _hundred_, _hurrying_, _instinct_, _laboratory_, _library_, _lightning_, _might have_ (not _might of_), _naturally_, _necessary_, _occasionally_, _omission_, _opinion_, _opportunity_, _optimist_, _partner_, _perform_, _perhaps_, _perspiration_, _prescription_, _primitive_, _privilege_, _probably_, _quant.i.ty_, _really_, _recognise_, _recommend_, _reverence_, _separate_, _should have_ (not _should of_), _soph.o.m.ore_, _strictly_, _superintendent_, _surprise_, _temperance_, _tragedy_, _usually_, _whether_.

=Logical Kins.h.i.+p in Words=

=72. Get help in spelling a difficult word by thinking of related words.= To think of _ridiculous_ will prevent your writing _a_ for the second _i_ of _ridicule_; to think of _ridicule_ will prevent your writing _rediculous_. To think of _prepare_ will prevent your writing _preperation_; to think of _preparation_ will forestall _preparitory_.

To think of _busy_ will save you from the monstrosity _buisness._ To think of the prefixes _re-_ (meaning _again_) and _dis-_ (meaning _not_), and the verbs _commend_ and _appoint_, will prevent your writing _recommend_ or _disappoint_ with a double _c_ or _s_.

Note.--The relations.h.i.+p between words is not always a safe guide to spelling. Observe _four_, _forty_; _nine_, _ninth_; _maintain_, _maintenance_; _please_, _pleasant_; _speak_, _speech_; _prevail_, _prevalent_. Do not confuse the following prefixes, which have no logical connection:

_ante-_ (before) _anti-_ (against, opposite) _de-_ (from, about) _dis-_ (apart, away, not) _per-_ (through, entirely) _pre-_ (before)

Exercise:

1. Write the nouns corresponding to the following verbs: _prepare_, _allude_, _govern_, _represent_, _degrade_.

2. Write the adjectives corresponding to the following nouns and the nouns corresponding to the following adjectives: _desperation_, _academy_, _origin_, _ridiculous_, _miraculous_, _grammatical_, _arithmetical_, _busy_.

3. Write the adverbs corresponding to the following adjectives: _real_, _sure_, _actual_, _hurried_, _accidental_, _incidental_, _grammatical_.

4. Copy the following pairs of related words or related forms of words: _labor, laboratory_; _debate, debater_; _base, based_; _deal, dealt_; _chose, chosen_; _mean, meant_.

5. Write each of the following words with a hyphen between the prefix and the body of the word: _describe_, _description_, _disappoint_, _disappear_, _disease_, _dissatisfy_, _dissever_, _permit_, _perspire_, _prescription_, _preconceive_, _recommend_, _recollect_, _reconsider_, _antedate_, _antecedent_, _anticlimax_, _ant.i.toxin_.

=Superficial Resemblances between Words=

=73. Guard against misspelling a word because it bears a superficial resemblance, in sound or appearance, to some other word.= Most of the words in the following list have no logical connection; the resemblance is one of form only (_angel_, _angle_). But a few words are included which are different in spelling in spite of a logical relation (_breath_, _breathe_).

accept (to receive) except (to exclude, with exclusion of)

advice (noun) advise (verb)

affect (to influence in part) effect (to bring to pa.s.s totally)

allusion (a reference) illusion (a deceiving appearance)

all right almost already

altogether always

alley (a back street) ally (a confederate)

altar (a structure used in wors.h.i.+p) alter (to make otherwise)

angel (a celestial being) angle (the meeting place of two lines)

baring (making bare) barring (obstructing) bearing (carrying) born (brought into being) borne (carried)

breath (noun) breathe (verb)

capital (a city) capitol (a building)

canvas (a cloth) canva.s.s (to solicit)

clothes (garments) cloths (pieces of cloth)

coa.r.s.e (not fine) course (route, method of behavior)

conscious (aware) conscience (an inner moral sense)

dairy diary

device (noun) devise (verb)