Spelling Challenge

There was such a favorable response to last week's Fun Friday, we're going to do it again and top off the week with another spelling challenge!


Here are today's words. The answers are below, but remember...



NO PEEKING!



1. acommodate, accommodate, accomodate

2. guarantee, gaurantee, guarentee

3. harassment, harrassment, harrasment

4. judgement, jugment, judgment

5. lisence, license, liscence

6. manuever, manuver, maneuver

7. ocurrance, occurrence, occurance

8. perserverence, perseverence, perseverance

9. restaurant, restuarant, resteraunt

10. supercede, superceed, supersede


BONUS WORD

dacquiri, daiquiri, daquiri



If spell all the words correctly, you get a GOLD STAR!



And, spell the bonus word correctly and you also get the prized, very special, Crystal Clear Proofing PURPLE star!




ANSWERS:

1. accommodate
2. guarantee
3. harassment
4. judgment
5. license
6. maneuver
7. occurrence
8. perseverance
9. restaurant
10. supersede

BONUS WORD: daiquiri




Everyone have a wonderful weekend - and remember to SMILE!
It's contagious!

Lay and Lie

Many variables create the lay and lie conundrum. Not only are they irregular verbs, but other issues arise when dealing with these two words and their various forms:

The past tense of one form is the present tense of another, i.e., the past tense of lie is lay.
Lay is also a present tense verb.
One of them, lie, can also refer to an untruth.


Lay means to put down, or to place.
It is a transitive verb and requires an object.

Lie means to recline, or occupy a location.
It is an intransitive verb and does not have an object.

Tip from CCP: A good way to remember which has an object and which doesn't is LIE. When using it to reference an untruth it has a negative connotation, so think of the fact that it does NOT have an object.


Therefore, you LAY a book on a table, and you LIE down.
(You don't lie the book on the table - you have an object. And, in the present tense, you don't lay down - you don't have an object).


Confused yet?


Here are some examples on how to conjugate these two verbs:

LAY
Remember lay is transitive and must have a direct object.
The past tense of lay is laid.

- Present tense: I lay the books on the table.
- Past tense: I laid the books on the table.
- Past participle: I had laid the books on the table.

LIE
Remember lie is intransitive and cannot have a direct object.
The past tense of lie is lay.

- Present tense: I lie down to rest.
- Past tense: Yesterday, I lay down to rest.
- Past participle: One day last week I had lain down to rest.


*****************************************************************
Substituting lay with place:

Since lay means to put down or to place, a good test in deciding whether to use lay or lie in a sentence is to *substitute the word place, placed or placing (as appropriate) for the word in question. If the substitute fits, the corresponding form of lay is correct. If it doesn't, use the appropriate form of lie.

- I will (lie or lay?) down now. (You would not say "I will place down now." Therefore, "I will lie down now" is correct.)

- I (laid or lay?) the pad on the desk. ("I placed the pad on the desk" works. Therefore, "I laid the pad" is correct.)

- I (laid or lay?) awake many nights. ("I placed awake" doesn't work. "I lay awake" is correct.)

- These files have (laid or lain?) untouched for some time. ("These files have placed untouched" doesn't work. Correct: "These files have lain untouched.")

- He has been (laying or lying?) down on the job. ("He has been placing down on the job" doesn't work. Correct: "He has been lying down.")*

*Source: The Gregg Reference Manual, Sixth Edition*
***************************************************************


Even grammar "experts" have a difficult time with lay and lie, and use a cheat sheet such as the one below:

****************************************************************

PRESENT........PAST..........PAST
TENSE...........TENSE........PARTICIPLE

Lay*................Laid............Laid______to place or put down
Lie..................Lay..............Lain______to recline

*Remember - requires an object.

****************************************************************
(Special Note: "Layed" is not a word - it is "LAID.")


Today you lay the book on the table,
yesterday you laid the book on the table,
and in the past you have laid the book on the table.

You need to lie down today,
yesterday you lay down
and in the past you have lain down.



If you had printed this out, you could now lay the pages on the table and go lie down and relax after reading all this information about lay and lie.

If all else fails, at least the chart above will help you remember. Really! I wouldn't lie!

Proofreading Tips

Proofreading is the final stage of the "checking" process of written matieral, which involves copyediting and proofreading. There is a difference between the two, and there are different forms of each, e.g., editorial proofreading, line editing, substantive editing, etc. In many cases, the "line" between them is very fine. In this post, I'll be using the term "proofreading" to encompass the processes involved in that final "check".

Just a few key points to keep in mind when proofreading, are:

1) Use a second set of eyes
2) Read out loud
3) Slow down

Working with someone else is vital in ensuring that your finished work is the best it can be. It is twice as hard to detect errors in your own work than in someone else's! So having a second set of eyes not only helps in finding errors, but they may also see things you don't and be able to offer suggestions.

Reading out loud is beneficial in that, many times we HEAR a mistake rather than SEE it. Our minds are so accustomed to seeing what they want, that frequently even common mistakes are missed. I'm sure you've seen the email that makes its rounds a few times a year where a page is compiled completely of misspelled words, yet we're able to read it with no problem. Our brains know what we're SUPPOSED to see, not necessarily what is actually there.

Common areas where errors occur are in usage (a good example being accept and except), and trasposition of letters (where you may have typed from when you meant form). Another good example is using the same adjective two or more times in the same sentence. By slowing down, reading each word separately and taking your time, you're more likely to catch these common mistakes.

Good proofreaders see mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar as if they were highlighted on the page. Going beyond just the basics, they know and can HEAR what is right; and they serve very well as that second set of eyes.

There's More to Proofreading Than Just Reading!

Part of the job of a good proofreader is to not only find the errors, but also having the ability to find the write words (yes, I did that on purpose) to get the author's message across to the reader in a clear and concise manner.

Proofreading itself involves pretty much the obvious: misspelled words, incorrect punctuation and grammatical errors. One of the most common "problems" facing a writer is the use of there, their and they're.

You won't find the answer here, however - that's my job, and very possibly the topic for another blog post!

Copyediting is another aspect and is a bit more involved. When editing written material, a copyeditor looks for proper structure and "flow." The last thing a reader wants is to have to work at reading. The written words should be as readable as if they were being spoken aloud. Of course this goes without saying that in such case, the speaker be well-versed in the proper use of the English language as well.

So, you have basic proofreading for spelling, punctuation and grammar; copyediting for structure and proper content; and what else? Writing. In order to be of value to an author, writer or publisher, a "proofreader" should definitely possess excellent writing abilities. If something is written without proper format or composition, how could that possibly be remedied unless your editor has the ability to find the right words and use them in the correct order, so that what you are writing is understandable and reads with ease?

The importance of a good proofreader/copyeditor is obvious to the majority of people in the "world of words." In this post I hope to have conveyed that message and defined in a bit more detail the different aspects involved in the field most commonly referred to as proofreading.