Poor spelling is unfortunate and all too common these days. That's not to say that it's something new, not at all, but with the internet and dictionary apps and e-books being as accessible as they are, there really is no excuse not to spell correctly.
Do you think a CV sweating typos and spelling mistakes is going to get you hired? Think again. Or that your university-level academic essay that contains the infamous 'beleive' or the tragically ironic 'succesful' is going to impress your lecturer? Not very much.
So to help you out, we'll be looking at ten hapless words that frequently fall victim to misspellings, some obvious and others not so much, starting with the two mentioned above.
1. Believe
Commonly misspelled as: beleive, belive
2. Successful
Commonly misspelled as: succesful, successfull
3. A lot
Commonly misspelled as: alot
4. Desert (sandy) and dessert (sweet)
You can remember the difference like this: A dessert is tasty so you want two, therefore it has two S's.
5. Weird
Commonly misspelled as: wierd
6. Forty (40)
Commonly misspelled as: fourty
7. Separate
Commonly misspelled as: seperate
8. Independent
Commonly misspelled as: independant
9. Apparently
Commonly misspelled as: apparantly
10. Curiosity
Commonly misspelled as: curiousity
There are different cases and reasons for poor spelling; some people don't see it as important, others might think they spell a lot better than they actually do. Whatever the reason, spelling is such a fundamental part of good writing, of basic writing, that it truly shouldn't be ignored.
Some tips to improve your spelling are to read often and to make a list of problem words you encounter and even create flashcards from them, but that's in an ideal situation. As a university student who probably doesn't have time for that, use a spellchecker when you can, and when you can't, the time you take to do a quick Google search to double-check is minimal and absolutely worth it.
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