Scribble Articles2

The 5 Year Journal

Scribble Articles

SOME TIPS FOR DEALING WITH REJECTION
by Laraine Anne Barker

Rejections hurt--and every editor knows this. They all try to be tactful, but with their workloads increasing every year they no longer have time to help a writer whose manuscript would take up months of their time to get right. So these days the chances are that, instead of a personal letter, you'll receive a photocopied rejection that isn't dated and doesn't address you by name or mention the title of the rejected manuscript, let alone have a proper signature at the end of it. I'm not sure whether this will increase your hurt or lessen it. I had been receiving rejections for years before I started receiving this type of thing.

First, don't take it personally. I know I'm wasting my time here. OF COURSE you are going to take it personally! But it might help to remember that the editor isn't rejecting you, isn't telling you that your manuscript stinks and she doesn't want to hear from you again. It's simply that your story didn't happen to be what she wanted. Maybe she (most editors, particularly for children's books, are women, so I'll stick with 'she') already has a title too similar to yours. There are many reasons why an editor might reject a book, including the fact that she just didn't happen to be feeling all that well when your book landed on her desk. It happens!

It might help to remember that Watership Down went through about 26 rejections before the late (and much lamented) Kaye Webb saw its potential. Veterinary surgeon James Herriott threw his manuscript into a bottom drawer, telling his wife he was obviously no good at writing so he supposed he'd better stick to something at which he WAS good. But for his wife's stubborn belief in him, the world would have been robbed of some of the most enjoyable best-sellers ever written, not to mention the television spin-offs. Even Stephen King had to battle against rejection. Imagine how the editors who rejected his manuscripts must have felt when those manuscripts went on to become best-sellers and blockbuster movies!

There really is only one way to overcome the hurt of rejection: send out more submissions. Submit! Submit! Submit! The more you send out the quicker you will come to the stage when rejections don't hurt any more--and that's one reason why writing short stories rather than novels is a better idea. It doesn't need to take years for rejections not to hurt, as it did with me. Honestly!

I know you're probably shaking your head in disagreement (and that you most likely wanted an easier, magical answer) but trust me: as long as you keep on submitting there will come a time when all you'll do on opening a rejection is give a sniff and a shrug and file it away with all the others. And that's another thing: never ever throw away a rejection letter. I even print out and file mail rejections--without fixing any typographic errors, I might add!

There are many things you can do to help turn rejection into submission. First, you should ensure your work is the best you can make it. If you are 'grammatically challenged' or have poor spelling, and don't bother to do anything about it, you will continue to receive rejections. If the first thing an editor sees on looking at your manuscript is an incorrectly used word or other examples of bad
grammar, you will definitely receive a rejection! But help is at hand. If you have trouble working out the difference between its and it's, draft and draught, for instance, take a look at my Words That Are Often Confused page (http://www.lbarker.orcon.net.nz/words.html) where you will find over 90 pairs/groups of such words, together with their correct meanings and, in many cases, some sample sentences.

Other things you can do to turn rejection into acceptance:
* Read as many books about writing as you can.
* Take a course on writing if you can find a suitable one and can afford the fee.
* Join a writers' critique group. The biggest problem with writers' groups is that jealousy can rear its ugly head, leading to criticism that's calculated not to help you but to tear you apart. You need to find a group whose members are on a similar writing level to yourself.

All the best of luck with your submissions. In the meantime you might like to visit a site about rejection. Try Rejection Collection at http://www.rejectioncollection.com, where you can read other writers' rejection letters and post your own.

© L A Barker Enterprises.

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

PAIRS/GROUPS OF WORDS OFTEN CONFUSED
Part 1 of 6: A
By Laraine Anne Barker

ACCEPT, EXCEPT
Not commonly seen even from unpublished writers, who are probably familiar with the difference because they're all waiting for an acceptance!
"We accept your invitation to your party, except for Bill, who will be away on that day."

ADAPT, ADEPT, ADOPT
Adapt means to adjust, adept means skilled and adopt means to take as your own: "Some people cannot adapt to new surroundings."
"He is very adept at dodging awkward questions."
"He tends to adopt the attitudes of those around him."

ADVERSE, AVERSE
Adverse means inauspicious, hostile; averse means disinclined, repelled.
"I'm very much averse to making a long, arduous journey under such adverse weather conditions."

ADVICE, ADVISE
Advice is the noun and advise the verb.
"His advice was that we should advise everybody to either stay away or be extremely careful."

AFFECT, EFFECT
Affect is a verb; effect is a noun.
"Bad weather will affect the quality of the fruit."
"The effect of bad weather is a reduction in fruit quality."

ALREADY, ALL READY
Already means by this time; all ready means prepared.
"Are you already packed?"
"Yes, I'm all ready to leave."

ALTOGETHER, ALL TOGETHER
Altogether means wholly; all together means everybody in a group: "It's altogether too bad you can't come."
"All together, now: 'Good morning, Sir!'"

ALL RIGHT, ALRIGHT
All right is the correct form; alright is grammatically incorrect.

ALLUDE, ELUDE
Allude means to refer to; elude means to dodge or escape.

ALLUSION, ILLUSION
Allusion is an indirect reference or hint; illusion means deception or mirage.

ALL WAYS, ALWAYS
All ways means by every way or method; always means all the time, forever.

ANNUAL, ANNUL
Annual means yearly; annul means to make void or invalid.

ANYONE, ANY ONE
This is quite tricky. Anyone means anybody, any person at all; any one means any one person and is followed by "of".
"Does anyone else want to come?"
"Any one of you is welcome to come along."

APPRAISE, APPRISE
Appraise is to assess or estimate. Apprise is to inform or notify: "I will appraise the situation and immediately apprise everybody of my conclusions."
Please don't make your character say or write anything like this, though--unless you want him to sound like a pompous twit!

ASCENT, ASSENT
Ascent is an upward movement; assent means agreement.

ASSISTANCE, ASSISTANTS
Assistance means help or aid; assistants is the plural of assistant, one who gives help.

ASSURE, ENSURE, INSURE
Assure means to guarantee; ensure means to make sure; insure means to protect against loss or damage: "I assure you there's no call for alarm."
"To ensure your crockery doesn't get broken, wrap it all in bubble wrap."
"In case of breakage or loss, you should insure everything with a good insurance company."

© L A Barker Enterprises.

NEXT: Part 2: B-D

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

RESEARCHING TOPICS FOR WRITING
(c) 2001 Vicki M. Taylor

When researching or investigating a topic for your writing, you have the greatest research source readily available: The Internet.

However, like all sources, you must be aware that not everything on the Internet is fact. It's important to verify all your facts, no matter what the resource.

So, you have an unlimited resource tool at your fingertips, where do you start?

INTERNET RESOURCES

Research-It!
One of the most comprehensive research sites on the Internet today is Research-It! at http://www.itools.com/research-it.

Their Language tools alone encompass English, Computing, Rhyming, Pronouncing, and Law dictionaries, an English thesaurus, and Universal and specific translators.

The Library tools let you search biographies and quotations, While the Geographical tools gives you access to all kinds of maps of the United States and World, telephone numbers, and the CIA Factbook.

Other tools that may not help you with Technical Writing research, but are awesome, nonetheless, are the Financial tools for converting currency and finding stock quotes, and the Shipping & Mailing tools for package tracking and locating areas by zip codes.

There is also an Internet search to locate e-mail discussion groups.

All in all, this site, while very comprehensive, limits your searches because you have to use their search tools.

What if you want to find information that doesn't fall into these categories? Then you go to a basic search tool on the Internet like a search engine.

Search Engines
Search engines can be found within every Internet Service Provider and Browser. Their names and locations change every day while more are added.

I've located two excellent sites that can help you learn where to find search engines and how to use them to your advantage.

How to Search the World Wide Web : A Tutorial for Beginners and Non-Experts

Sink or Swim: Internet Search Tools & Techniques

Libraries
Practically every college and university library in the world is on the Internet now and you can use their tools to research any topic. You can also visit your local city library for a more "hands on" approach to research.

Software Product Research
If you're researching a product, go to the company website and see if you can download a trial version or other kind of temporary version. Or, if the product isn't available yet, contact the company and see if you can get an alpha or beta version that you can use. Some companies may not be as open about sharing their product information as others. Don't feel slighted if they refuse your request. Companies must protect their interests first. If you are writing an article that may put a positive spin on the company's product, they may offer a trial, discounted, or even free version of the software in exchange for reviewing the article before it goes to print.

And, if all else fails, don't forget to fall back on your interviewing techniques and just go to the source and ask questions!

-------------

Resource Box: Vicki M. Taylor Editor, The Florida Writer's Association , Contributing Editor, Suite101 - Technical Writing
http://www.suite101.welcome.cfm/8567, President, Taylor'd Consulting, Inc. http://www.taylor-d.com/, Official Author Website http://www.vickimtaylor.com/, Life After High School Host http://www.delphi.com/MSHS1980/start
mailto:vmtwriter@vickimtaylor.com

(c) Copyright 2001, all rights reserved. All original work by Vicki M. Taylor is copyright protected.

PAIRS/GROUPS OF WORDS OFTEN CONFUSED Prt 2 of 6: B-D
By Laraine Anne Barker

BAITED, BATED
Baited usually refers to traps or snares. When the reference is to someone who is hardly daring to breathe, the correct word is always bated: "She watched with bated breath." I've yet to read that someone "bated a trap" instead of baiting it, but there's always a first time.

BARE, BEAR
Bare means naked; bear (apart from being a large animal) means to carry.

BESIDE, BESIDES
Beside means by the side of; besides means in addition to.

BIANNUAL, BIENNIAL
These two are really tricky! Biannual means happening twice a year; biennial means every two years.

BLONDE, BLOND
Because these are borrowed from French there is a feminine and masculine form. Blonde is feminine and blond is masculine.

BOARD, BORED
Board is a long sheet of wood, also a group of people as in "Board of Directors", and as a verb means to go onto a ship, plane or other form of public transport; bored means not interested.

BORN, BORNE
Born is always the beginning of life, borne means carried. "I was born in the middle of a particularly severe winter." "The logs were borne down the river to the mill."

BRAISE, BRAZE
Braise means to cook slowly in liquid (usually meat); braze most commonly means to solder with an alloy of copper and zinc.

BRAKE, BREAK
Brake means to stop; break means to smash.

BY, BUY, BYE
By is a preposition meaning next to; buy means purchase; bye means farewell or good-bye.

CAPITAL, CAPITOL
Capital means the seat of government; capitol is the building where government meets.

CONTINUAL, CONTINUOUS
Continual means something that happens frequently, with breaks between the occurrences. Continuous means something that happens without stopping!
"Continual interruptions distract me from writing."
"The continuous noise of the motor mower distracts me from writing."

CO-OPERATION, CORPORATION
Co-operation (usually spelt without the hyphen in US English) means working together; corporation is a business organisation.

CORRESPONDENCE, CORRESPONDENTS
Correspondence is written communication; correspondents are those who write it.

CREDIBLE, CREDITABLE
Credible means believable; creditable means praiseworthy or deserving credit.

CURB, KERB
Curb means to control, as in "curb your temper"; kerb is the edge of a footpath or sidewalk.

DESERT, DESSERT
Desert means to abandon (and can also be a noun, meaning a wasteland); dessert is the sweet course of a meal.

DEVICE, DEVISE
Device is a noun, meaning a gadget or (particularly in writing terms) an invention; devise is a verb, meaning to invent or plot.

DISCREET, DISCRETE
Discreet means respectful, prudent; discrete means separate or detached from others.

DRAFT, DRAUGHT
Draft refers to the the first writing of your novel or story (or any other document). You can also be drafted (enlisted or recruited) into the army, navy, etc. Draught is an air movement, a drink (as in "draught of ale") or refers to a horse (or other animal) used for pulling ploughs, etc (e.g., "draught horse").

© L A Barker Enterprises.

* You have permission to reprint what you've just read. Use it in your ezine, at your website or in your newsletter and FREE ebooks. The only requirement is including the copyright line and the following footer.

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

PAIRS/GROUPS OF WORDS OFTEN CONFUSED: Part 3 of 6: E-I
By Laraine Anne Barker

ELICIT, ILLICIT
Elicit means to extract or draw out; illicit means not legal.

EVERYONE, EVERY ONE
Everyone means every person in a group; every one means each person and is always followed by "of".
"Everyone needs to know how to swim."
"Every one of you should be able to swim."

FAIR, FARE
Fair means average, good-looking, pale, unbiased (what a lot of meanings for one little word!); fare is the money you pay to go somewhere by bus, train, plane, taxi, etc. It can also refer to a passenger. As a verb it means do, as in:
"I didn't fare as well in my exams this year as I'd hoped."

FAZE, PHASE
The most common error is the use of phase when the writer means faze. To faze someone is to fluster or confuse them, whereas phase is mostly used in reference to a stage in someone's life--though it can be a stage in almost anything else:
"Like most children, Danny's going through a phase of refusing to eat his vegetables."
"Nothing fazes my mother, who can produce a meal for unexpected guests at a moment's notice."

FOREWORD, FORWARD
Foreword is the preface in a book, usually written by someone who is not the author; forward means ahead, near the front.

FORTH, FOURTH
Forth means forward; fourth is after "third".

FOUL, FOWL
Foul can mean dishonourable (by foul means), disgusting (a foul smell), entangle (rubbish dumped in the river can foul fishing lines); fowl is a bird.

GORILLA, GUERRILLA
Gorilla is a large ape; guerrilla is a particular kind of soldier.

HANGED, HUNG
A criminal is always hanged; a picture is hung: "We hung the portrait where everybody could see it."
"John Smith was hanged yesterday at dawn."
Just remember, "I'll be hanged if they're going to hang me," and you won't forget the difference again!

HERD, HEARD
Herd is a group of animals; heard is the past tense of hear.

HERE, HEAR
Here refers to a location (as in "over here"). Hear is always what your ears do. I can't see why writers should get confused here, but they must do because I have seen this more than once. (And, no, that's not a sample sentence!)

IRREGARDLESS, REGARDLESS
There is no such word as irregardless; the correct word is regardless.

HOLE, WHOLE
Hole is an opening; whole means complete.

ITS, IT'S
This is confusing because possessives normally have an apostrophe, but in this case it's is short for it is and its is possessive--always.
"Its colour is green and it's quite beautiful."
Other possessives that don't have an apostrophe are theirs, hers, yours and his--though I doubt anyone is likely to try putting one in his!

© L A Barker Enterprises.

NEXT: Part 4: J-O

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz Fantasy for Children & Young Adults for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE

PAIRS/GROUPS OF WORDS OFTEN CONFUSED: Part 4 of 6: E-I
By Laraine Anne Barker

LATER, LATTER
Later means afterwards; latter is the second of two things. "Later that day we went for a walk." "We have two choices. The latter is the more reliable, but the former would be cheaper."

LAY, LAID
This pair confuses writers almost more than any other. "He lay on his bed." Although this sentence is past tense, "laid" would be incorrect and suggests he was laying eggs. "She sighed as she laid the visitors' book beside the pen and lay back wondering if she would ever make an entry in it again." In present tense the sentence would read, "She sighs as she lays the visitors' book beside the pen and lies back, wondering if she will ever make an entry in it again."
BUT "I sigh as I lay the visitors' book beside the pen and lie back, wondering if I will ever make an entry in it again."
(In practice, I would probably write I place/placed and she places/placed. It's so much less confusing, not to mention less repetitive!)
"It lay on the desk beside an open book." Present tense would read, "It lies on the desk beside an open book." "Our hens lay every day." "The hens laid ten eggs yesterday."

LEAD, LED
Lead (pronounced led) is a heavy metal or (pronounced leed) the present tense of led. So: "He opens the door for me and I lead the guests upstairs to their rooms." "He opened the door for me and I led the guests upstairs to their rooms."

LEND, LOAN
Lend is a verb meaning to give something temporarily to someone; loan is a noun, meaning the temporary transfer of something to someone else. So, "Dad, can you loan me a few dollars until pay day?" is incorrect.

LESSEN, LESSON
Lessen means to make less; lesson is something you learn.

LOATHE, LOATH
Loathe always means hate or detest, and loath means reluctant or hesitant. It's that simple! "I loathe the idea of complaining about such a small thing." "I'm loath to complain about something so small." These sentences may seem to say the same thing, but the speakers' feelings are different. It's nearly always "loathe" that is used when the writer means "loath", seldom the other way round.

LOSE, LOOSE
Lose always means mislaying or dropping something and not being able to find it, while loose means slack or free: "If the fastening on your wrist-watch is loose (slack) you may lose your watch."

MAYBE, MAY BE
Another tricky one, best explained by demonstration: "Maybe you could explain this to us a little clearer." "It may be a good idea to give us a clearer explanation of this."

MEET, METE, MEAT
The two more often confused are meet and mete. Meet means to encounter (and can also mean fit or suitable); mete means to allot, apportion or distribute; meat refers to flesh as food.

NO, KNOW
Strange that these two should get confused, but they do. No is always the opposite of yes; know is to be certain (that you know the difference!)

OVERDO, OVERDUE
It baffles me that people get these mixed up, but they do. Overdo means to exaggerate or carry something too far; overdue is what your bills are when you forget to pay them!

© L A Barker Enterprises.

NEXT: Part 5: P-R

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz Fantasy for Children & Young Adults for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

REWRITING: GET RID OF REDUNDANCIES
by Laraine Anne Barker

The biggest difference between beginning writers and experienced ones is that the latter are better at seeing the faults in their work before they submit it to editors.

Unfortunately, faults are very good at hiding from beginner writers. However, if you want to be published you have to find them and fix them.

If you can't work out where to start put your story away for a few weeks, preferably at least a month. You need to be able to read it with a fresh mind, as though it's new to you--or at least as new as is possible to its writer.

When you get back to it again, ask yourself a few questions. Does it still give you that rosy glow you felt when you finished writing it--or do you now feel a vague sense of dissatisfaction? If the latter is the case (and it almost certainly should be) but you still can't work out exactly what's wrong, you can always start with little things. What appear to you as small faults will look like huge ones to an editor, who will instantly be dragged out of your story by them. If you can't keep her focused on the story editors of children's books are nearly always women, so I'll stick with feminine pronouns) she will definitely reject it.

Books (and even short stories) for children are becoming shorter as the years pass,which means today's children's writers must use fewer words than in previous generations. This means every word must count. So, assuming you didn't find (or have fixed) any problems with the actual story--contradictions, wrong time lapses, sudden changes in a character's eye colour, inconsistencies such as having a character's hands tied up in one scene and in the next having them wave them around without someone having first untied them, etc.--you can now get rid of redundancies. Here are a few
things to look for:

WEAK WORDS

a bit, a little, about, actually, almost, almost like, already, appears, approximately, basically, close to, even, eventually, exactly, fairly, finally, here, highly, just, just then, kind of, mostly, nearly, now, practically, pretty, quite, rather, really, seemed, seems, simply, slightly, so, somehow, somewhat, somewhat like, sort of, suddenly, then, there, truly, utterly, very.

Your sentence will usually be improved if you delete any of the above words from it. Try it. You can always go back to the original sentence if you feel it really needs the word. (Sometimes it does!) Other phrases to look for are "begin to" and "start to". In most cases, for instance, it's better to simply have your character run instead of start to run.

OTHER OFTEN REDUNDANT WORDS

are "that" and "had". Try deleting them. If the sentence doesn't make sense you can always revert to the original. Especially avoid using "had had". It's very ugly. Rewrite your sentence to exclude it.

In "She nodded her head," the words "her head" are definitely redundant: you can't nod anything else but your head. In "I thought to myself," the words "to myself" are likewise redundant: you can't think to anyone else but yourself.

The words "would" and "could" are often unnecessary, too. For instance, rather than "She would have expected to find nobody home," try "She expected to find nobody home." Instead of "He could sense that nobody believed him," try "He sensed nobody believed him." If the sentence works better with the "would" or "could" you can always put it back.

Also, look for every use of the word "was", which often indicates use of the passive ("she was told not to be late") instead of active voice ("he told her not to be late"). Try the same exercise with "were". Active isn't always the best voice, of course. If you feel it works better with the passive voice, by all means leave it.

ADVERBS

Many adverbs are also redundant, especially when they're used to tell how something was spoken.

In all three of the following sentences the adverbs are redundant because it's obvious how the words were spoken.

"How dare you go into my room without my permission!" she shouted angrily.
"There, there. Don't cry," Mary said soothingly.
"Here come the clowns!" Danny shouted excitedly.

The adverbs in "whispered softly" and "shouted (or screamed) loudly" are also redundant. Unless the whisper is loud enough for everyone to hear it, a whisper is by definition soft, and you certainly can't scream softly!

So, go through your manuscript yet again looking for words ending in ly. See if you can delete them. If you feel the sentence needs the adverb, by all means leave it. If adjectives and adverbs were as redundant as some dopey self-styled writing experts would have us believe, they wouldn't exist at all.

For further writing tips, see other links on my Site Map at http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz/sitemap.html.

© L A Barker Enterprises.

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at <a href="http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz"> Fantasy for Children & Young Adults</a> for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

PAIRS/GROUPS OF WORDS OFTEN CONFUSED: Part 5 of 6: E-I
By Laraine Anne Barker

PASSED, PAST
Passed is the past tense of pass. Past means a time that has gone. "Time passed and we all forgot the incident." "In times past it was the custom for women to wear hats in church."

PEACE, PIECE
Peace means the absence of war (or even noise); piece is a portion of something.

PEAK, PEEK, PIQUE,
Pique means to excite or irritate; peek means to peep or snoop; peak as a noun means the summit or tip, and as a verb means to climax. So, you pique someone's curiosity; you don't peek or peak it. If someone annoys you, you become piqued rather than peeked or peaked.

PLAIN, PLANE
Plain means obvious, also unadorned or lacking in good looks; plane is a carpenter's tool or an abbreviation of aeroplane.

PATIENCE, PATIENTS
Patience means forbearance; patients are people under medical care.

POUR, PORE
You pour sauces, gravies, etc, over your dinner, while pore means to study something--so, "pore over the book", not "pour over the book", which reads as though you might be damaging the book with an unnamed liquid substance!

PRESENCE, PRESENTS
Presence means being near at hand; presents are gifts.

PRINCIPAL, PRINCIPLE
Principal means chief or main, also the amount borrowed in a loan; principle means regulations or ideals.
"The principal reason for the company's failure was lack of money." (or)
"The new principal is making a real difference to our school."
"We are paying both principal and interest each month on our mortgage."
"She is completely without principles and would steal from her own mother."
"The principle of a clause like this in your employment contract is to protect you against unfair dismissal."

QUIET, QUITE
Quiet means without noise; quite when used in fiction usually means moderately, but can also mean totally or entirely. Use of the wrong word here could, of course, simply be a typing error that went unnoticed in the proof-
reading stages!

RAIN, REIGN, REIN
Rain is the water that comes down from clouds; reign means to rule; rein is a strap, usually leather, for controlling an animal, especially a horse.

RAISE, RAZE
These two are exact opposites. Raise means to lift or build up and raze means to pull down: "We will raise the reputation of our village to new heights."
"He instructed his army to raze the village to the ground."

REALITY, REALTY
Reality is real life; realty is real estate.

REFERENCE, REVERENCE
I don't know if this confusion is common. I didn't even realise the words COULD be confused until I saw one wrongly used in something written by ... a writer! Maybe it was just a typing error. Reference is something referred to, reverence means respect.

RESIDENCE, RESIDENTS
Residence is a house; residents are the people who live there.

RESPECTFULLY, RESPECTIVELY
Respectfully means politely; respectively means in the order stated.
"The containers stood in a row and were numbered 1, 3, 2, 5 and 4 respectively" means they were standing in this order rather than numerical order.

RIGHT, RITE, WRITE
Right means correct; rite is a ceremony, usually religious; write means to make words.

ROAD, RODE
Road is a long surface for cars and other vehicles; rode is the past tense of ride.

© L A Barker Enterprises.

NEXT: Part 6: S-Z

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at <a href="http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz"> Fantasy for Children & Young Adults</a> for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!

PAIRS/GROUPS OF WORDS THAT ARE OFTEN CONFUSED, Part 6 of 6:S-Z
By Laraine Anne Barker

SALE, SAIL
Sale is either offering something for purchase ("for sale") or offering it at a special price ("on sale"); sail is part of a ship or boat.

SELL, CELL
Sell is to exchange for money; cell is a small room.

SCENE, SEEN
Scene is the place where something happens; seen is the past participle of see.
"Yet he had seen nothing suspicious at the scene of the accident." (Of course you wouldn't write a sentence like that; the two words make for a clumsy combination. I would probably replace "scene" with "site".)

SITE, SIGHT, CITE
Site always refers to location or place: building site; archaeology site.
"We will site the house to take advantage of the panoramic views."
Sight always refers to vision, as in the cliche "a sight for sore eyes".
"We sighted two horsemen coming over the hill."
"It was a sight I would never forget."
"She feared she might lose her sight."
Cite means to summon, or to refer to a source, as in the following sentences:
"I was cited as a witness to the accident."
"He cited in his defence an incident in which these same people were involved."

SOME TIME, SOMETIME
This is a common confusion. Some time is a period of time and sometime means at some time not specified.
"Some time ago you promised to introduce me to your brother."
"Sometime when you're not busy we must do this again."

STATIONARY, STATIONERY
Stationary means standing still. Stationery refers to writing paper.

STATUE, STATUTE, STATURE
Statue is a carved or moulded likeness; statute is law; stature means height or status.

STRAIGHT, STRAIT
Straight means without bends; strait is a passage of water.

TENANT, TENET
Tenant is one who rents a property; tenet is a principle or belief.

THERE, THEIR, THEY'RE
There is a location: "Put it over there."
Their is the possessive of they: "their coats"
They're is short for they are: "They're unlikely to miss seeing them."
So: "They hung their coats over there by the door where they're unlikely to miss seeing them on their way out." Dreadful sentence I know, but at least it demonstrates the correct usage for all three words.

TO, TOO, TWO
To is a preposition meaning towards; too means also; two is the number after one.

VICIOUS, VISCOUS
Vicious means savage, cruel; viscous means thick, gummy.

WAIST, WASTE
Waist is the part of your body around which you fasten your belt; waste is stuff that's thrown away.

WAVE, WAIVE
Wave means to flap your hand in farewell and as a noun is also a breaker on the beach; waive means to give up one's rights or claim.

WAVER, WAIVER
Waver means to be undecided; waiver means the giving up of one's rights or claim.

WEAK, WEEK
Weak is the opposite of strong; week is seven days, Sunday to Saturday.

WET, WHET
Wet as a verb means strictly to pour liquid on something, or soak something in liquid. You do not "wet" somebody's appetite for anything; you'll only land up doing the opposite of what you want! Instead, you whet it, which means to sharpen or stimulate.

WHICH, WITCH
As a fantasy writer, I have trouble believing people get these two confused! Which is one of a group; witch is a sorcerer.

WHOSE, WHO'S
This confusion is similar to its and it's. Whose is possessive, and who's is short for "who is".

YOUR, YOU'RE
As in the previous entry, this confusion is similar to its and it's. Your is possessive and you're is short for "you are".

This is the end of the present list, which is growing all the time. Updates will appear on the complete list on http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz/words.html.

© L A Barker Enterprises.

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people. Visit her web site at <a href="http://lbarker.orcon.net.nz"> Fantasy for Children & Young Adults</a> for FREE stories and novel excerpts. Sign up for the NOVELLA OF THE MONTH CLUB, absolutely FREE!