The complete idiot guide part 27 pps

Chapter 18:
Guide
to
Spelling:
Hooked
on Phonics
243
3.
/
before e
except
after c Remember this baby from the eighth
grade?
(Or were
you
too busy
putting
Clearasil on your nose and
ogling
the teacher to pay
atten-
tion to something as mundane as
spelling?)
Here's the rule (and it even has a
bouncy rhyme to it):
/
before e
except
after c or when sounded as a as in
neighbor
and

weigh
Here are some words
that
fit the rule.
i
before e except
after
c sounded as
a
achieve
conceit
believe
ceiling
siege
receive
relief
conceive
grief
deceit
chief
deceive
fierce
perceive
fiend receipt
piece receive
shriek
And here are some words
that
don't:
•

either
•
neither
•
foreign
•
height
•
leisure
•
seize
•
weird
(Hey, is anything perfect? I never promised you a rose garden, only some neat-o
spelling
rules.)
neighbor
weigh
freight
reign
sleigh
vein
weight
2W
ParU:
Tools
of
the
Trade
ieeeeeeeeeeeee!

Add ie or ei to complete each word.
1.
f rce
2-
s
ge
3.
bel ve
4.
rec pt
5.
cone
t
6. dec ve
Answers
1.
fierce
2.
siege
3.
believe
4.
receipt
5.
conceit
6.
deceive
7
8
9

10
11
12
7
8
9
10
11
12
n
ghbor
c ling
for gn
rel f
w rd
v n
neighbor
ceiling
foreign
relief
weird
vein
See
and
Say
Some
words are misspelled because they are often mispronounced. Sometimes extra
letters are added; other times, letters are omitted. How many of the following words
do you mispronounce?
1.

Leaving
out a
consonant:
February, recognize, surprise, government, library,
eighth, Arctic, candidate, probably.
2.
Adding an
unnecessary
vowel:
forty, pronunciation, schedule, chimney,
disas-
trous, umbrella.
3.
Leaving
out an
unstressed
syllable:
accidentally, superintendent, incidentally.
4.
Leaving
out an
unstressed
vowel:
temperature, vegetable,
original,
miniature,
interesting, diamond, chocolate.
Chapter 18:
Guide
to

Spelling:
Hooked
on Phonics
2W
At other times, you're not at fault at
all:
The words are spelled differently from the
way
they sound.
With
such unphonetic words, you're working
without
a net. There
are
no rules, only spelling techniques like memorization and
visualization.
Of course,
there are always dictionaries.
These unphonetic words
fall
into three main
categories:
silent
letters,
tricky-dickie
word
endings,
and y/i
use.
And here they are

Silent
Letters
Never seem to meet the people you want to see, but can't get rid of the same old
pests?
The same is
true
of
spelling
words. Keeping this truism in mind, here are some
words
with
silent letters
that
have no
doubt
been annoying you for
years.
Only now,
you
know why.
•
Silent
b:
doubtable, subpoena, subtle, undoubtedly
•
Silent
h:
exhaust, exhibit, exhilaration, ghastly, ghost, heir, rheumatism, rhyme
•
Silent

g:
align,
design, gnarled, diaphragm
•
Silent
p:
cupboard, pneumatic, pneumonia, psalm, pseudonym, psychology,
receipt
•
Silent t: bankruptcy, listen, mortgage, wrestle
•
Silent
c:
acquaint, acquire, acquit, ascertain, miscellaneous, ascend, fascinate,
indict, muscle
Tricky-Dickie
Word
Endings
The following words confound even the best spellers because they don't end the way
we think they should:
•
Words
that
end in
-ar:
beggar,
burglar,
Jm
^—
L

bursar, calendar, cellar, liar
ÉHl^^
^
Quoth the
Maven
•
Words
that
end in
-dan:
electrician,
^cf
Homonyms
and
homophones
musician,
pediatrician, politician
•
Words
that
end in
-aim
Britain, captain,
certain, mountain, porcelain
are
especially
tricky to
spell
and
use

correctly.
See
Chapter 24 for
a
complete list of
these
words.
2<t6
Part
<i:
Tools
of
the
Trade
Y/l
Use
Here are some words
that
sound like they contain an
/.
No such luck; each has
a
y
creating
the
/
sound.
•
abyss
•

analyze
•
cylinder
•
hypocrisy
•
paralysis
•
syllable
•
symmetry
•
symphony
•
synonym
Spelling Demons
How can you tell a spelling demon? They're the words
that
look wrong even when
they're right.
I
know you can spell all
right
because it's the opposite of
all
wrong.
Maybe you were
lucky
enough to learn
that

a
lot
is two words,
rarefy
has
that
pesky
e,
and
sacrilegious
has
a whole lot of letters.
There are still tons of words
lying
(laying?)
in wait for you. Here are 10 common
spelling
demons
that
have no
doubt
been deviling you for
years:
Ten
Touqh Spelling Words-and Ways to
Make
Them Tender
1.
traveler.
The British spell it

with
two
/'s,
but Americans don't double-up, except
in
accented
syllables
(such as
controlled,
referral,
propeller).
2.
coolly.
Here, you're just adding the suffix to the root. (I know it still looks
funny.
But it's right. Trust me.)
3.
embarrass.
Two r's and two
J'S.
But then
again,
we have
harass.
4.
unparalleled.
Memorize this sucker. There's no other way around it.
Chapter
18:
Guide

to
Celling:
Hooked
on
Phonics
2W
Strictly
Speaking
So
what's it
going
to be:
hare-
brained or hairbrained? (The
for-
mer, as in harelip.)
5.
nickel.
Is
there
any justice in the world?
6.
glamour.
We can deal
with
this but
what
about
glamorous?
7.

resuscitate.
That's why people learn
CPR;
they're too busy being heroes (not
heros)
to spell
what
they just did.
8. genealogy. Like its first cousins
mi?ieralogy
and
analogy,
one of a few words
that
doesn't end
with
-ology.
9.
pavilion.
That's
what
we get for taking words from the French.
Cotillion
and
vermilion
also pose difficulty.
10.
dysfunction. Because so many people have it,
better
learn how to spell it

(maybe a cure is
easier?).
Still
game? Here's a list of spelling demons you're likely to encounter in daily life. Of
course,
there
are many more, so
don't
write
to me, e-mail me, or fax me your favorites.
I'll
give you a few lines at the
bottom
of the list where you can record your favorites.
abbreviate
abyss
academic
ache
adjacent
allotted
bachelor
balloon
bicycle
bigamy
budget
bureau
capsule
career
carnival
cellophane

debtor
decided
defense
deferred
delicious
deluge
ecstasy
efficient
eighth
eligible
emperor
emphasis
fascinate
feasible
February
fickle
gallery
ghetto
grammar
guess
handicapped
heaviness
height
heroes
icing
icy
illegally
illogical
jeopardy
journal

journeying
juvenile
keenness
kindliness
laboratory
larceny
legend
leisure
maintain
marmalade
marriage
mathematics
neutral
niece
ZM)
Part
4:
Tools
of the
Trade
ninety
notary
obnoxious
obstinate
offensive
opponents
pageant
papal
parallel
paralysis

rabid
rebelled
rebuttal
referee
sincerely
sugar
treachery
turkeys
The
Least
You Need to Know
•
Know your
spelling
rules.
•
Learn how to add prefixes and suffixes to improve your spelling.
•
Use a dictionary and
other
hints, such as air writing and
visualizing.
•
Some words just
don't
follow the rules. These you
must
learn or look up.
Part
Style: All the

Write
Stuff
Chartreuse stilettos, Pop Tarts and Pez, The
Wolfman—what
do these
items have in common? They all have style,
that
elusive
je ne
sais
quoi,
the
"I
know it when I see it." The Wicked
Witch
of the West had it; Good
Witch
Gilda didn't. Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, and Audrey Hepburn oozed
style;
pity poor Prince: Even
with
a symbol rather than a name, he has no
style.
Radioactive desert shrubs don't have style; Beemers, Batman, and
boxers do.
In
this part, you learn how to
give
your writing its own distinctive style.
You learn ways to develop your own distinctive writing style, including

using
figurative
language,
tone, and diction.

Chapter
What
Is
Style,
and
How
Do
I
Get
Some?
In
This
Chapter
•
Define "style" in writing
•
Explore the
3C's
of
all
effective writing
styles:
consistency, coher-
ence,
and clarity

•
Analyze different writing styles
•
Explore myths about writing styles
"Every
style
that
is not boring is good,"
wrote
the French writer Voltaire.
All
good writing shares one common quality: It has
style—no
matter
what
form the writing takes. In this chapter, you explore the elements of writing
style.
Along the way, you analyze different writing styles to find the ones
that
work best for your purpose and audience.
Style:
Write
On!
A
writer's
style
is his or her distinctive way of
writing.
Style is a series of
choices—words,

sentence length and structure, figures of speech, tone,
voice,
diction, and overall structure.
r
^2
252
Part
5:
Style;
All
the
Write
Stuff
Think of
style
as the writer's voice or personality coming through the words. I use
The
Complete
Idiot's
Guide
to
Grammar
and
Style
in my college classroom. I
assign
a big
chunk of reading as the
first
night's homework. The

next
class,
my students always
say,
"As I read your
You
Could
Look
It
Up
_,
book>
j
fek
like you were talking to me? Dr
Rozakis
»
That's because my style of writing in this book is
very similar to my style of
classroom
teaching:
per-
sonal,
informal, and
funny.
A
writer's
style
is his or
her

distinctive
way of
writing.
However, writers often change
their
style for different kinds of writing and to suit dif-
ferent audiences. In poetry, for example, a
writer
might use more imagery and figures
of
speech
than
he or she would use in prose. My style is very different
when
I
write
a
letter
of complaint, a
letter
of condolence, or a business memo, for example.
Some
twentieth-century
American writers celebrated for
their
lucid writing style
include
Truman
Capote, James
Thurber,

Dorothy Thompson, Joan Didion, John
McPhee, Tracy Kidder, and E.
B.
White.
The late Mr.
White,
a long-time
essayist
and short story
writer
for
The
New
Yorker,
oozed so
much
style
that
he even co-
authored a famous little writing manual called
The
Elements
of
Style.
It's the
ne
plus
ultra
of writing style guides.
But good writing style is not restricted to professional writers. People like you get

ahead in
part
because of your ability to
write
clearly and effectively. For example
•
Lawyers need to make
their
briefs
logical.
•
Accountants
must
write
clear cover letters for audits.
•
Retail workers often
write
letters of recommendation and promotion.
•
Insurance brokers
write
letters soliciting business.
•
Educators
write
observations of
staff
members and reports on students.
•

Computer
specialists
write
proposals.
•
Marketing personnel
write
sales
reports.
•
Engineers
must
write
reports, e-mails, and faxes.
•
Stock and bond traders
write
letters and prospectuses.
And who among us doesn't
write
resumes,
cover letters, memos, faxes, and business
letters? We all need to develop good writing style.