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Charles Dube
“NO matter how hard you practise, there will always be some words that you struggle to spell correctly.”
Spelling mistakes are really obvious to the examiner, so use the following tips to help you spell perfectly. Keep a list of the words that you find tricky. Practise spelling them until you get them right every time. Use flashcards and write the spelling on the front, and put the meaning on the back. That way you can test the spelling as well as the meaning. Learn spelling rules — the ‘‘i before e’’ rule. These are some examples that you should learn:
Believe — The “ie” sound does not come after a “c”, and it rhymes with bee, so it goes “ie” as in thief. Receive — The “ie” sound does come after a “c” and it rhymes with bee so it goes “ei”. Neighbour as eight —The “ie” sound does not come after a “c”, and it does not rhyme with bee so it goes “ei”. Science — the “ie” sound does come after a “c”, but it does not rhyme with bee, so it goes “ie”. Thoroughly learn these spelling rules and you will have helped yourself in minimising gross spelling mistakes.
Try using mnemonics — these are sentences or phrases that can help you remember spellings. Make up your own mnemonics for words that you find tricky. For example for a word like necessary it might work this way: Necessary — Never Eat Chips — Eat Salad Sandwiches And Remain Young. This is an example proffered by some writers. It has been noted that it can be hard to think about spelling in the middle of an examination.
If you are quoting from source material in the examination, check your spelling against the extract. If you are struggling to spell a word — sound it out in your head. Write out any troublesome words in rough to see whether they look right before you use them in a sentence or essay. If you are still not sure how to spell a word, try to use a different word that means the same that you definitely know how to spell.
Some teachers help learners master spellings by regularly giving them lists of confusing words to work on. When examinations come learners would have learnt many words. They would have learnt how to spell them correctly and how to use them efficiently in sentence construction. For example, learners can learn these common examination words which come up in essays time and time again: analyse, criticism, argument, believe, interesting, separately, strengths, successful, weaknesses, exaggerate, definitely, recommend, whether, independent, probably and experience to mention but a few.
If you are not sure which words you struggle with, have a look through some marked work or homework to see which mistakes your teacher keeps correcting. It is important to go over all marked work to note mistakes which keep on recurring and take note of the teacher’s comments for improvement in future work. Some learners hate negative comments yet they can positively help them.
The tricky words listed here are just a starting point — though — make sure you make your own vocabulary lists for the subjects you take. It is not only at English Language that you should be wary of spellings. Different subjects have their own words which are commonly misspelt. Subjects like History, Geography and sciences have words commonly misspelt as well. You will need these technical terms in essay writing.
You will talk about these types of writing, alliteration — when consonants are repeated at the beginnings of nearby words. Empathy — when someone understands what someone else is experiencing and feeling. Figurative — something that is not meant to be taken literally. Foreshadowing — where the reader is given clues about what will happen later. Imagery — descriptive language that creates a picture for the reader. Irony — when the author says one thing but means the opposite.
A metaphor — a way of describing something by saying that it is something else. Personification — when you talk about something non-human as if it is a person. Playwright — somebody who writes plays and simile — a way of describing something by saying that it is like something else. As stated before, these definitions are meaningless as long as they are not supported by sentences where they have been used. Properly constructed sentences with these words used demonstrate full understanding of the technical terms.
“Who”, “which”, and “that” do not look tricky, but if used incorrectly they could be instant mark-drainers. Learn how to use them properly to avoid losing marks. Use “who” when you are writing about people. Jack was the boy who was troublesome on the island. It was the teacher who set the rules. “That” can refer to people, but “who” can never be used to talk about things. Use “which” when you are talking about things. When you are talking about animals or things, you should use “which”.
“That” is also used to write about people and things. But it is better to use “who” or “which” instead of “that” in your essays. Example: It was the chief that was criticised. This is fine . . . but this — It was the chief who was criticised — is better. It is best to use “who” or “which” . . . Avoid using “that” and stick to using “who” for writing about people, and “which” for writing about things.
Learn these language rules for improved performance in your essay writing or grammar.
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derick.khumalo