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Tutorial Lady's Guide to Curing Spelling Amnesia - Now Available for Kindle and PDF

If you suffer from "Spelling Amnesia," the disorder that kills your memory for spelling and grammar rules, the Tutorial Lady has a quick cure.

If you have to stop and think about which spelling to use for THEIR, THERE or THEY'RE; ITS vs IT'S; AFFECT vs. EFFECT; or YOUR vs. YOU'RE... Tutorial Lady's spelling tutorial can help. A handy reference guide for fixing the most common spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes... before they happen.

Here's an example from the tutorial:

Rules for "Your" and "You're"

Quickie tutorial for one of the most common spelling mistakes: knowing when to use “your” versus “you’re” --

Your is the second person singular adjective that relates to something “you” possess:

Your clothes

Your car

Your outlook on life

You’re is a contraction for “you are.”

You’re going to be impressed.

You’re on the right road.

You’re going to love this post.

You can see the tutorial online here also... it contains everything you need, but it's not nearly as portable as the PDF and Kindle versions.

Kindle Version:

Click this link for info at Amazon.com about the NEW Kindle tutorial for curing Spelling Amnesia.

PDF Version:

Please use this Paypal button to purchase the Spelling Amnesia Guide in PDF format:

Don't forget to click on "Return to New Radiance" for your download.

Spelling and Grammar Tutorial #7... Affect vs. Effect

When to use “affect” or “effect” confuses many people – for good reason. Since the 1400s, these words have been somewhat interchangeable, with meanings passing back and forth between them. In current English usage, here’s how it stands:

Affect is mostly used a verb that means “to influence” or “to change.”

The state of the economy can affect a person’s buying habits.

In many circles, your clothing affects how you are perceived.

However… “affect” as a noun describes a feeling or emotion and is a term used most often in psychology.

Effect is most often used a noun meaning “result.”

The effect of his naval training was a well-run ship.

Every cause has an effect.

However… “effect” is sometimes used as a verb meaning “to accomplish” or “to bring about.”

He effected a studious demeanor, thinking it would impress his teachers.

They hope to effect a settlement of the dispute before the weekend.

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Spelling and Grammar Tutorial #6... None Is - vs. - None Are

Do we use a singular or plural verb with these words: none, either, everyone, neither, nobody and someone? Here's the answer.

When “none” means “not one” or “no one,” we use a singular verb following it.

For example, “None of the presidential candidates is worth voting for.” The singular verb “is” relates back to the singular pronoun “none” rather than to the plural noun “candidates.”

But if “none” refers to more than one person or thing, you use a plural verb. For example: “None are so ridiculous as those who always think they are right.”

Other words that give us pause – and create an abundance of grammar mistakes are: each, either, everyone, neither, nobody and someone. The verb following these words should be singular.

For example:

Each of us is wealthy. (NOT “are wealthy”)
Neither Harry nor Sally is coming with us. (NOT “are coming with us”)
Everyone has his own opinion. (NOT “has their”)

Speaking of “his opinion” –

Political Correctness vs. Grammatical Correctness with Gender

It may be that using the masculine “his” is less politically correct when referring to both genders, but using “his” is still more grammatically correct than trying to pluralize a singular adjective to avoid a gender issue. “Everyone has their own opinion” is grammatically incorrect, in other words, because “their” is a plural adjective trying to relate back to “everyone,” a singular pronoun and “has,” a singular verb.

Using “his/her” is not a terribly good alternative, either, because it breaks the tempo of the writing and makes the text harder to understand. I also don’t care for mixing the genders willy-nilly – alternating he, him, his and she, her, hers throughout the text.

As a female writer, it doesn’t particularly bother me to use “everyman” words, even though more than 50% of the readership is likely to be women. I tend to opt for ease of reading as the first priority.

If you can construct sentences that are gender-neutral, without diminishing your writing style – or distracting people from your content – that’s terrific. But if the sentences feel forced and are unnatural-sounding, you might want to try the “everyman” approach and stick with the “universal” masculine pronouns.

Of course, the other option is to use the universal feminine (she, her, hers)… just be consistent one way or the other for the sake of clarity.

 

Free Spelling Tutorial #5 - When to Use "Who's" or "Whose"

Here's a quick spelling tutorial on the use of "who's" versus "whose."

"Whose" is an adjective that essentially asks a question about the ownership of something:

> Whose shoes are they?
> Whose science project won?
> I don't know whose idea that was.

Who's is simply an abbreviation for "who is" or "who has." The apostrophe indicates missing letters.

For example, "Who's coming with me?" or "Who's the man?"

"Who's" - as in "Who's got the tickets" is a contraction for "who has." We could have said, "Who has the tickets," but we just as often say, "Who's got..." (which is short for "who has got").

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Free Spelling Tutorial #4 - "Lie" versus "Lay"

A common word usage question is when to use "lie" versus "lay." Here's a quickie tutorial to clarify the issue.

LIE:

One usage of the verb “lie” means “to recline” – I am going to lie down on the sofa for awhile.

However… the past tense of “lie” is “lay” – I only lay in bed for half an hour.

And… the past participle is “lain” – I have lain in bed longer than I should have.

LAY:

A common usage of the verb “lay” means “to put or set down” – I am planning to lay my purse on that table.

Past tense is “laid” – I laid my purse on that table just ten minutes ago.

Past participle is also “laid” – I have laid my purse on that table every day for a month.

Of course “lie” also means to fib, but that’s not the one we confuse with “lay.” And we could “lay a bet” or “lay a plan” or “lay the table for dinner,” but these are not confused with “lie.”

Bottom line: You don’t “lay down” in bed, nor would you have “laid in bed for a nap.”

You LIE down but you LAY something else down, when speaking in the present tense, which is where most of the mistakes come from with the lie-lay situation.

 

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Free Spelling Tutorial #3 - Its versus It's

There seems to be a mass amnesia in spelling and punctuation centering around the word “its.” Something happened at the millennium and everybody forgot the rule for this little possessive adjective. I’ll bet this is the single biggest spelling mistake of our time.

“Its” without an apostrophe – is a possessive, third person, singular adjective that typically relates to something other than a person. The noun it refers to was probably mentioned just previously (in this sentence, “it” refers to the noun “noun”), so you know what "it" is.

“Its” refers to something “it” possesses:

The dog was so agitated, its barks were deafening.

I picked a daffodil and its color reminded me of sunshine.

“It's” with an apostrophe – is an abbreviation for (1) it is or (2) it has:

It’s a foregone conclusion. It’s raining.

It’s been proven long ago. Look at the daffodil; it’s gone to seed.

The main rule to remember here is – the apostrophe takes the place of missing letters and represents a shortened version of a pronoun and a verb: “it is” or “it has.”

No apostrophe means ownership of some kind -– and no missing letters.

Suffer from Spelling Amnesia? Here are Rules for "Your" and "You're"

Quickie tutorial for one of the most common spelling mistakes: knowing when to use “your” versus “you’re” --

Your is the second person singular adjective that relates to something “you” possess:

Your clothes

Your car

Your outlook on life

You’re is a contraction for “you are.”

You’re going to be impressed.

You’re on the right road.

You’re going to love this post.

Spelling Tutorial - When to Use Their, There & They're

Do you suffer from “spelling amnesia?” We all learned spelling and grammar rules way back when, but with the casualness, speed and frequency of writing on websites, blogs and for ezines, more and more of us are missing more and more spelling and grammar mistakes.

Mistakes we could never allow ourselves to make in print media, which seem so much more permanent.

And the thing is... there are still enough folks around who do know the right spellings and it can make us look less credible if we don’t appear to be familiar with the language in which we’re writing.

So... if proofreading isn’t your thing, this 8-part tutorial offers a quick reference guide for those times when a word doesn’t look right, or you’re not sure you remember the rule.

 

(1)  Their, There or They’re

For most of us, it has probably been a few years since we had all those grammar and spelling lessons drummed into our heads.

I before E
Except after C.

Believe, perceive, relief, receipt – we remember this spelling rule because of the catchy jingle that comes with it.

In English, of course, there are many exceptions to the rules. And sometimes, there’s more to the rule! I don’t remember hearing the “or when sounded as A” part when I was learning this in elementary school:

I before E
Except after C
Or when sounded as A
As in neighbor and weigh…

(and “their” as it turns out).

A few other exceptions are: foreign, height, leisure, weird, neither. See page 137 of “The Elements of Grammar” for more exceptions to this rule.

“Their” is a possessive, third person, plural adjective relating to “something belonging to them” – as in: their house, their political party, their stupid rules of grammar – and the entities involved have been named earlier, so it’s implied that you know who or what they are. What is being pointed out now is the house, party or rules “owned” by “them.” You can just as easily be talking about daffodils, with “their” flowers shimmering in the sun.

“There” has a few meanings. It can mean a physical place: over there, go there – or it can mean a virtual place: stop right there before you say something you’ll regret.

Sometimes “there” is used to express satisfaction, sympathy or even defiance:

There, it’s finished!

There, there, you’ll soon feel better.

There! You do it!

And “there” is frequently used to introduce a sentence or clause: “There comes a time…”

“Hi there” and “you, there” are sometimes used when we don’t remember someone’s name right away.

To confuse the issue even more, there’s a third usage that sounds the same but is spelled differently – “they’re.” Here the apostrophe indicates a missing letter. “They’re” is an abbreviation for “they are” – as in “they’re coming” or “they’re not so big.”

***Watch for 7 more spelling and grammar tips.***