Joseph D Keefer Ph D

Spell-Checker Follies Joseph D Keefer Ph D

There are hundreds of instances in which two or more words are pronounced alike but are spelled differently-for example, "role" and "roll." In addition, there are hundreds of instances in which two words are pronounced differently but do exhibit some similarity in appearance-for example, "compel" and "impel." Even well-educated people occasionally commit what can be called a "word-choice blunder"-that is, mixing up sound-alike words or similar-looking words. Those blunders can undermine your professional credibility and can embarrass you in social settings. Knowing the "right" word by heart is important. When you compose text on a computer, you cannot depend on a spell-check program to catch mistakes related to sound-alike or similar-looking words. When you forgo a spell-checker or when you hand-write a note, you are on your own. And, when you speak, you are on your own, too, because you need to know the distinctions between similar-sounding words. The book "Spell-Checker Follies" provides guidance on the correct usage of 435 pairs of words-182 sound-alike pairs and 253 similar-looking pairs. "Spell-Checker Follies" is designed to be read cover-to-cover and studied, much like a textbook. The book is divided into 16 units, each four pages long, with the most-common word pairs being addressed in the early units. An index lists the word pairs alphabetically.