Search Results for 'apostrophes'

My daughters an English teacher in one of our state high school’s.

She emphatically claim’s to be an “apostrophe nazi.”

She goes around the staff room, office and staff office’s correcting the misuse of apostrophe’s in other people’s poster’s, notices and anything pinned up on the notice boards.

I’m thinking of never going shopping with her again – just in case she decides to go around correcting poster’s and advertising hoardings. That would be most embarrassing.

I recently came across this following hint regarding the use of apostrophes:

Use the possessive apostrophe in it’s place and omit it when its not needed.

One cant be too careful.

I hope my daughter never read’s this or she might find a few mistakes. At least she cant access this blog in order to correct it’s mistakes.

Oh dear – Ive just realised that she could leave comments about this post. Ooops.

I invite you to comment on the above text.

Can you find all the errors?

I think I have made 14 errors. But… I could be wrong!

Over recent days I have highlighted the different stages of writing:

Step 1: Plan

Step 2: Write

Step 3: Rewrite

Step 4: Edit

The editing stage is often overlooked by inexperienced writers. This is a crucial stage in the writing process. In the editing stage you need to go back over every word in the piece of writing; it doesn’t matter if it’s a fifty word filler paragraph or a five hundred thousand word novel.

Check for these things:

1. Check Spelling: spelling mistakes are avoidable; check – don’t assume it’s right.
2. Use the correct homophones: get to know the difference between know and no, right, rite and write, to, too and two. There are dozens more.
3. Use the right word: make sure you are using the right word for the context. For example, “She gave the allusion that she was very intelligent.” The correct word should be “illusion.”
4. Punctuation: make sure it is all there – and that it is used correctly. Study the classic authors and how they use punctuation for effect.
5. Check your typing: no matter how carefully you type, errors will creeep in – see what I mean? Get someone else to check for typos. And watch out for words that have been missed out. (I actually found one after I published this article.)
6. Check your use of apostrophes: mastering these is crucial. If you don’t, the Apostrophe Police will come knocking at your door, headed by my daughter.
7. Cut out all unnecessary words: ideally, this is done in the rewriting stage. Avoid padding just to reach the word count. (I just cut out four unnecessary words from that last sentence.)
8. Grammar: use correct grammar. This is too big a topic for this short article.

Good writing.

Further reading:

• Writing hints – more hints about writing.
• How to be a more productive writer or blogger – includes a list of strategies
• Short story starters – another article in this popular series I have written
• Write first drafts quickly
• Five rules for effective writing

Remember:

• Read every day.
• Write every day.
• Take time for yourself every day.