Ok, we know you’ve got a problem; a writing problem. Consider this an official intervention, All of your family and friends are here to support you, to help you overcome this semantic plague. We know you can kick this insidious infliction of mixing up your homophones.
Homophones are those pesky words that sound exactly like each other but with differing spellings. In this second instalment of the Title Case Content writing series, we’ll deep dive into the 3 most commonly confused homophones. I’m talking to YOU there and their!. Let’s begin. 1. They’re in there with their big grins By far the most erroneously used homophones in the English language are there, their and they’re. Why linguists had to create three words sounding exactly the same but all with separate meanings is the greatest neological conundrum of all time. So here’s the breakdown. They’re. The obvious thing to note in this form of the homophone is the apostrophe. An apostrophe is always used to turn two words into one word by omitting one letter and replacing it with the apostrophe. It’s called a contraction. In the word they’re the apostrophe is replacing the letter ‘a’ which would make up the two words they are. So, if you are about to write, ‘I’m envious of they’re car’, test your use of the word by lengthening into its longer form, and re-read your sentence. ‘I’m envious of they are car’ makes no sense at all, does it? There. Used in a couple of ways, this form of the homophone determines location, as in the opposite of here, but is also used as a pronoun to introduce a word or phrase, as in ‘There are so many ways to screw up the English language’. Confusion is most commonly caused between ‘there’ and ‘their’, especially when an ‘s’ is added to them, as in the examples below: a: Incorrect: Theirs a unique way of looking at things. b: Incorrect: The unique perspective is all there’s. a: Correct: There’s (there is) a unique way of looking at things. b: Correct: The unique perspective is all theirs. Their(s). As the examples above reveal, ‘their’ is used to indicate possession of something to a third-person party, as in ‘Their perspective is unique.’ It never takes an apostrophe like its cousin ‘there’, so if you’re ever tempted to use one, don’t! 2. Knowing your shit, not you’re shit ‘Your’ and ‘you’re’ are the second most misused homophones and are usually used due to laziness. In order to extrapolate the difference between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ we only need to refer back to our old friends the apostrophe and possession. You’re. Again, when expanding this abbreviation into its full form, we’re left with the words, ‘you are’ which is the second-person form of the verb ‘to be’. Considering this fact, ‘you’re’ should always precede descriptive words or phrases about the person to whom you are referring. For example: ‘You’re a brilliant writer.’ ‘You’re able to create masterpieces.’ Not: ‘Your a brilliant writer.’ ‘Your able to create masterpieces.’ Spreading out an apostrophised word into its two parts will always show you the way to successful word choice. Your. This second-person possessive word refers to ownership of something that you—not I, not he or she—has. If you were to incorrectly use ‘you’re’ in this context, it would sound very confusing when you apply the separation test. See below: Correct: Your taste for fine cuisine is impeccable Incorrect: You’re (you are) taste for fine food is impeccable. See the glaring difference? 3. Tsk, tsk, It's, Its Two more conspirators in the great homophone hitch are the tiny but oft confused words, it’s and its. These dastardly micro-idioms can defy the most exhaustive editors, so don’t beat yourself up for confusing them, just read on. It’s. By now you know that the presence of an apostrophe can mean only one thing—it’s a contraction that can be separated into two words and tested for validity. I dare say that most people know this but let laziness or autocorrect tell them otherwise. Don’t do it! This erroneous habit paints you as a vernacular pedestrian with no regard for humanity! Correct: It’s (it is) about time you write that book. Incorrect: Its about time you write that book Its. When the apostrophe is removed from ‘It’s’ you’re left with what’s called a determiner. A determiner is a word that attributes possession or belonging to something mentioned earlier in a paragraph or sentence. Example: Correct: Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow. In this example, the word ‘its’ attributes the white fleece to the aforementioned little lamb. Here’s how it would look if you incorrectly used ‘it’s’: Incorrect: Mary had a little lamb, it is (it’s) fleece was white as snow. Simple as that! At best, homophones can streamline our prose, tighten superfluous verbiage and depict us as competent scribes. At worst, the misuse of these tenacious little shits can portray us as illiterate slackers with no regard for our mother tongue. With a few simple tests anyone can master them and write like a champ.
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Welcome to the first article in our ‘Writing Tips for Scriptophobics’ series. We know that writing is one of those things that can break the most accomplished marketing director into a cold sweat, so we wanted to assuage your distress by providing practical advice on common mistakes many people make when trying to scribe cogent copy. We hope this series will not only alleviate writing stress, but actually make it an enjoyable practice and cure your writing phobia.
Our first topic and one that has frozen the fingers of many budding writers over time is that of self-editing while writing. This lexical limitation is rooted in a desire for perfection. It’s that little voice in your mind whispering unproductive criticisms like, “No one will want to read this drivel”, or “That’s not the right way to say that”. This toxic mental berating has no place in the writer’s mind and can easily be quashed when using some simple techniques. Pour it onto the page One trick to overriding self-editing and internal criticism in your writing is to pour all of your knowledge about your chosen topic onto the page from the outset. If you worry about superfluous rules such as spelling, word choice or punctuation in the early stages, your creative flow will be stifled, leaving you staring at the heart-shaped foam art of your accompanying latte . When you spill it onto the page in a format that can be easily broken into clear sections for editing and rearranging later, you’ll have more than enough material to either scale back or augment with research and quotes, resulting in a polished and informed piece of prose. One thing to avoid while using this technique is getting too attached to the mass of writing that you’ve purged. The idea is to confidently remove what’s not needed and select the gems from the rubbish, change common verbiage into more poignant and original semantics, use your spellchecker and make corrections, read your work aloud to see if it sounds natural. Prepare an outline If you find the devil-may-care technique of purging a little, well, reckless, another way to battle the writer’s block is to dedicate time to outlining the structure of your piece prior to actually writing it. Though an obvious technique that you probably learned in school , this method is commonly overlooked due to our time-poor lives and the urgency in fulfilling rigorous commitments. Just like writing a speech or an essay, your outline should detail a definitive beginning, middle and end. That is, tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you’ve told them. You don’t have to be as regimented as that, but the gist is that your piece should have a natural flow, one that carries the reader from one paragraph to the next in a seamless order that makes sense. Your outline should be the framework from which you’ll elaborate with more detailed information and distinct language. Headings should be followed by bullet points of topics to cover, leading to a precis of your conclusion in an organic manner of writing. When you’ve completed your outline, approach each section as an independent component of the piece, making sure that the last sentence of each paragraph acts as a direct segue to the next paragraph. If you stick to these simple rules, you’ll never be bereft of material. Keep an eye out for our next installment of Writing Tips for Scriptophobics soon, and remember this: "A word after a word after a word is power." --Margaret Atwood |
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