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Webster was an American That dictionary you're using is likely by Mr. Noah Webster, an American. Do note that there are several spelling differences in Canadian English, as compared to American. If you're attending a Canadian university, please honour it by spelling Canadian! (Note the spelling of 'honour' with the 'our' ending, as one example). |
Your Must-Have Personal Library ...should include not only a good dictionary (the good old fashioned paper kind), but also a thesaurus. A thee-sore-what? Exactly. If you don't know it, you don't have it, and the poorer your English will be without one. |
How to Get an A Paper in 5 Easy Steps: 1. Write an outstanding one liner (a.k.a. thesis statement). What + why you're bothering to tell us. 2. Do an outline. Do an outline. Do an outline. Did I mention, do an outline? 3. Write like crazy. Does each point refer back to your thesis? Prove it. Ask how. 4. Add a smashingly good title. 5. Hire me to proofread when you're done writing. I'm Rachel. Come talk to me. 704-YOUR www.yourenglish.ca Top 10 Mistakes ESL Students Make Writing Essays 10. Not understanding the standard essay format 9. Not proofreading their own work 8. Getting a friend to proofread 7. Panicking a couple of days or hours before the essy's due 6. Starting the essay only hours before the essay's due (really, I hope that's not you) 5. Expecting the tutor to correct EVERY mistake the student's made in the essay as if the tutor is their editor; remember, tutors guide you to improve your writing, and ethically cannot assist in editing academic papers 4. Not following the instructions for the essay assignment (which could because they don't really understand what's being asked of them in the first place) 3. Avoiding using semi-colons, or using them like commas 2. Missing those important a/an and the articles 1. Writing a title that doesn't reflect the content of the essay Spelling Made Easier Let's face it. English spelling is cruel at times due to multiple historical crossroads and inter-lingual adaptations. In other words, history and other languages have sometimes confused the spelling. Look at these words to see what I mean: tough, dough, through. All end with 'ough' but all three sound different. That's wacky! Tough is [tuf], dough is [doh] and through is [throo]. Memorization for other spellings is made easier with a bit of rhyming. For words like weird, ceiling or fierce and field --is it i before e, or e before i? Well, either (look, there's another one!) depending on the word. Here's a rhyme kids learn in elementary school: I before E except after C or when sounding like A as in neighbour or weigh. |
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We call it the Magic E Have you ever caught yourself stumbling over the pronounciation of some words, not knowing whether to say a vowel as long or as short? Here's one trick that you can use. Example: Short a (æ in IPA) as in cap, bat or tap --that vowel 'a' sound is called a short, but that vowel changes to long when an'e' is added to the endof the word, making them cape, bate, and tape. Remember, the first vowel sound changesbecause of the one following it, in this case the 'e', allowing the 'a' in cap to become the sound of the letter in the alphabet. |