The Right Word

PREFACE

This book was originally designed to assist students (particularly those for whom English was a second language) with the difficulties they encountered when writing. Many of my students studying communications were from non-English-speaking countries.

Problems with English usage became evident when students encountered words that had the same sound but were spelled differently and had different meanings (e.g., cite/ sight/site). Spellcheck could not be relied on every time to identify a word spelled incorrectly, particularly if it seemed correct in the context.

These words are known as homophones. (The word homophone derives from the Greek homos, meaning “same,” and phone, meaning “sound.”)

Searching for the correct spelling of homophones ...