Spelling
This series of short-form posts aims to help professionals write well and clearly when composing in English. Everything here is stolen wholesale from The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. (Available as a book— oh, everywhere. Get it. Read it.) I will sometimes offer commentary on the text.
The spelling of English words is not fixed and invariable, nor does it depend on any other authority than general agreement. At the present day there is practically unanimous agreement as to the spelling of most words. In the list below, for example, rime for rhyme is the only allowable variation; all the other forms are co-extensive with the English language. At any given moment, however, a relatively small number of words may be spelled in more than one way. Gradually, as a rule, one of these forms comes to be generally preferred, and the less customary form comes to look obsolete and is discarded. From time to time new forms, mostly simplifications, are introduced by innovators, and either win their place or die of neglect.
The practical objection to unaccepted and over-simplified spellings is the disfavor with which they are received by the reader. They distract his attention and exhaust his patience. He reads the form though automatically, without thought of its needless complexity; he reads the abbreviation tho and mentally supplies the missing letters, at the cost of a fraction of his attention. The writer has defeated his own purpose.
WORDS OFTEN MISSPELLED
领英推荐
Note that a single consonant (other than v) preceded by a stressed short vowel is doubled before -ed and -ing: planned, letting, beginning. (Coming is an exception.)
Write to-day, to-night, to-morrow (but not together) with a hyphen. [NH: This is no longer accepted use.]
Write any one, every one, some one, some time (except in the sense of formerly) as two words. [NH: Again, no longer accepted use.]
This concludes this series of posts on writing clearly and well. Thanks for reading!