The complete idiot guide part 27 pps

• Silent b: doubtable, subpoena, subtle, undoubtedly • Silent h: exhaust, exhibit, exhilaration, ghastly, ghost, heir, rheumatism, rhyme • Silent g: align, design, gnarled, diaphragm

Chapter 1 8 : Guide to Spelling: Hooked on Phonics 2 4 3

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

2 W P a r U : 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 1 8 : Guide to Spelling: Hooked on Phonics 2 W

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 É H l ^ ^ ^ Quoth the Maven

• Words that end in -dan: electrician, ^ c f 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 2 4 for

a complete list of these words

2<t6 P a r t <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 1 8 : Guide to Celling: Hooked on Phonics 2 W

Strictly Speaking

So what's it going to be:

hare-brained or hairhare-brained? (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

Z M ) 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

2 5 2 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 y o u w e r e t a l k i n g t o me? D r R o z a k i s»

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