Spellings Part 1 – One Word or Two?
Unfortunately, the spellchecker (one word according to Oxford, by the way) in Word doesn’t catch all our errors, especially if we hyphenate words or it doesn’t agree with the style guide we’re using (in my case the New Oxford Style Manual). Below is a list of ten spellings that I have come across in my work and which sometimes cause difficulties. This is the first of the spelling lists in the bite-sized tips series.
- each other = two words
- time frame = two words, so timeframe and time-frame are incorrect, even though the Microsoft spellchecker is quite happy to accept this as one word.
- well-being = hyphenated, so well being and wellbeing are incorrect
- insofar as = two words (and not three or four)
- electrotechnical and electrotechnology = one word, so electro-technology and electro technical, etc., are not correct
- twofold = one word
- online = one word, so on line and on-line are not correct
- web page = two words, lower case
However,
- website = one word, lower case. Am I the only one failing to see the logic here?
- attn = for the attention of. There is no point after the “n” because this is a contraction in which the middle of the word is omitted. As we keep the last letter, attn. = incorrect. We generally add a point to abbreviations, which lose the end of the word.
Bite-sized Tips No. 1: Common Mistakes Part 1
Bite-sized Tips No. 3: Spellings Part 2 – Ten You Should Know
This post was first published on 26/2/2014 on my previous blog.
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