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Spelling



Writing correctly involves being able to spell words correctly. The advent of personal computers with their wordprocessing packages and spellcheck devices has been a boon to poor spellers. Since they are a valuable aid, such devices should be exploited to their full potential; but remember that the spellcheck will not detect cases where you incorrectly write there for their or vice versa. Further, if you are to be able to write correctly when you are writing by hand or proof-reading printed or manuscript material, you will need to know how to spell.

You will find below a list of words which staff in this university find commonly misspelled in written work which their students submit. You may wish to set yourself an initial goal of eliminating the misspelling of at least these words from your writing. If so, read the list and then use the SELF-TEST provided.

a-f
f-k
l-q
r-v

accede
accessible
accommodate
accordance
acknowledg(e)ment
acquaint(ance)
acquire
allege
appearance
argument
assistant/assistance
beginning
coincident/coincidence
committee
comparative
compatible
competent/competence
concede/concession
conceive
consistent/consistency

defendant
defensible
definite
dependant (noun)
dependent (adjective)
develop/development
envelop (verb)
envelope (noun)
excellent/excellence
existent/existence
expense
extension
focused/focusing
hindrance
hypocrisy
idiosyncrasy
immediately
infinite
insistent/insistence judg(e)ment

knowledge
licence (noun)
license (verb)
meter (instrument for measuring)
metre (1. = 1000 millimetres or 1.094 yards. 2. = poetic or musical rhythm.)
naïve/naive
observant/observance
occasion
occurred/occurring/occurrence
omit/omitted/omitting
perceive
persistent/persistence
playwright
possess
practice (noun)
practise (verb)
precede
preferred/preferring
privilege
proceed
pronunciation
psychology

receive
referee
referred/referring
relevant/relevance
repentant/repentance
repetition
resident/residence
resistant/resistance
rhyme
rhythm
Scandinavia
sentence
separate
succeed
supersede
sustainability
targeted
tenant/tenancy
transient/transience
variant/variance

Click on the button for self-tests