Forget Spellchecker – Here are 8 ways to Avoid Common Spelling Errors

It does not matter if you are sending a personal correspondence, submitting your resume for a great job, or working on a paper for school, it is always embarrassing to make spelling and grammar errors. What is more, every beginner blogger makes these mistakes. Fortunately there are steps that you can use to make sure that there is as limited a number of spelling and grammar mistakes as is possible. Taking some time to review these tips and implement them can result in a higher level of respect for your written skills, and a practical improvement of those written skills.

1. Use a Friend, Family Member, or Trusted Peer to Work as Your Editor

Never submit a paper or other written assignment without having at least one person that you trust review your document for spelling errors. The person you ask for it should have at least decent writing skills. They will be able to catch any spelling errors that you might miss. The second set of eyes is not foolproof, but it certainly helps.

2. Download StyleGuard and Buy a Copy of the AP Style Book

StyleGuard is a utility that runs over Microsoft Word that allows you to check for both spelling and grammar errors along with formatting issues that indicate that your writing is not AP style compliant. In addition to pointing out errors, StyleGuard also provides suggestions for fixing any mistakes that may exist. It will be very useful for you to check the mistakes and to remember rules and spelling.

3. Subscribe to Grammarly

Grammarly is significantly less expensive than StyleGuard, and it is useful to a much wider audience. Grammarly highlights spelling and grammar errors as you write. Then, when you are ready to check your document for spelling and grammar errors, Grammarly walks you through each one. You are given the option to ignore errors, or to correct them on the fly. Unlike most built in spell checkers, the makers of Grammarly designed the software to catch potential misuse of words. Students who are trying to develop their writing skills will appreciate the fact that Grammarly explains why it flags words and phrases.

4. Do not Depend on Spell Check

In fact, you are better off viewing your word processor’s spell check as ‘spell suggestion’. Most built in spell checkers don’t consider context when flagging words. They also don’t consider technical terminology, slang, or other words and phrases that may be perfectly acceptable depending on the type of writing, or who that writing is aimed at.

5. Know Which Words Trip You Up

Is it tomorrow, success, communication, or parallel? All of us have a few words and phrases that we consistently misspell. If we take the time to recognize these weaknesses, we can catch ourselves in midstream to correct any misspellings while they are happening. Another idea is to keep a list of words that you typically misspell written down a piece of paper near your workstation. This way you have an automatic reference that you can use as you are writing.

6. Make Mnemonics Work for You

If spelling correctly is really a struggle for you, try to use mnemonic devices to find creative ways to associate the spelling of tough words to memorable and catchy words, phrases, or even rhymes. memorizing might seem hard, but eventually it will stick with you and you'll be spelling the complicated words correct without thinking about it.

7. Go Slow

Whenever possible, take as much time as you can to write slowly and carefully. When your brain outpaces your keyboard, or your keyboard outpaces your brain, mistakes are going to be inevitable. You will other mistype, or you will fail noticing silly mistakes as you write. When your task is to write a large paper it takes much time to do the research, get all of it approved and find the best way to put things together make them look smooth and correlated. Editing gets hard after all of the time dedicated to the paper. Such pattern definetly concerns college thesis and dissertation. At ths point, it is wise to get help from dissertation writing service by GhostProfessors. Professional spell-check is a good option to ensure great result. We hire only the best and highly professional editors and writers who will not only correct your mistakes, but also explain them to you. Or you may order writing of the paper or part of it from experts, thus the spell-check becomes not necessary.

8. Read Your Document Starting from the Bottom

Always read your papers line by line starting with very last sentence. This technique works because you can read each sentence for spelling mistakes without getting caught up in the content of your written work. When you read a paper from beginning to end, it is easy to focus on what the writer is saying. Unforunately this makes it more difficult to catch petty mistakes. 

You may not be able to apply every one of these techniques each time you write something, but you can make a concerted effort to utilize at least a few. Your readers, your instructors, and your colleagues will appreciate the efforts that you put forth. Before you know it, your naturally writing and spelling abilities wild improve exponentially. If, after using these techniques, you still struggle with spelling and grammar issues, it may be time to contact student support services for an evaluation. They can put you in contact with somebody who can help you determine whether or not you have an underlying learning problem that is impacting your ability to properly spell or construct a written document. They can hook you up with extra help, and arrange for you to receive special accomodations when your instructors are evaluating written works for spelling and grammatical errors.