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Your Editing Shows if You're A Good Writer

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Sometimes Word Choice is Everything

Know Your Homophones

Homophones--Words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings.

Not Homophones—where/were
Homophones—where/wear

A

ant, aunt

H

here/hear

P

peer, pier

T

there, they're, their

threw, through

to, two, too

W

where,wear

The rules for today's Reading Workshop Homophone Telephone:

1. You can only whisper to the person beside you

2. You can only use www.dictionary.com as a resource

3. You can share with the person on each side

4. If you hear (here) words from anyone other than the person beside you, you (ewe) cannot use those words

5. If homophones start with different letters, you can list them under whichever word you list first.
6. You can't (cant) use proper nouns.

I Hope You're Learning Your Yours

Using language correctly tells others that you are intelligent, thoughtful, and responsible, some of the time. Then there are cases like this:

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Do You Know Your Yours?

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Have You Checked Your Homophones Lately?

Is your writing more like 1 or 2?

1.  Due ewe no you're homophones?  Win u our threw righting, due yew no if there write?.  

or

2.  Do you know your homophones?  When you are through writing, do you know if they're right?

Reading Workshop students, please give your readers a break.  Check your homophones and get it right!

For more information see Your Homophone is Out of Order.

Thanks to Gineriella for allowing this edited version of her video to be used in the classroom.

Get Your Grammar Right!

Do you know which word to use?  Let's see, is it to or too?  There, their, or they're?  Your or you're?  Does is really matter?  IT BETTER!

When you write online, your thoughts, ideas, and opinions can be viewed by everyone.  That makes it paramount that you write correctly.  The reader will only respect your writing if it is clean and error free.  Part of your editing responsibility is to use the correct homophone.

A special thanks to Gineriella for allowing the editing of this video to use with sixth grade students in The Reading Workshop.

Your Homophone is Out of Order

Is your writing ringing in the ear of the reader?  Have you checked for mistakes with homophones?  Since texting and IMing have become so popular, this has become the most frequent mistake in writing.  It’s also become extremely common among bloggers.

Homophone--One of two or more words, such as night and knight, that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning, origin, and sometimes spelling.

Here are three of the mistakes with homophones that show up over and over:

1. Your vs. You’re

All it takes to avoid this error is to take a second and think about what you’re trying to say. “Your” is a possessive pronoun, as in “your car” or “your blog.” “You’re” is a contraction for “you are,” as in “you’re screwing up your writing by using your when you really mean you are.”

2. It’s vs. Its
This is another common mistake. It’s also easily avoided by thinking through what you’re trying to say.  “It’s” is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” “Its” is a possessive pronoun, as in “this blog has lost its mojo.” Here’s an easy rule of thumb—repeat your sentence out loud using “it is” instead. If that sounds goofy or wrong, “its” is likely the correct choice.

3. There, They're, and Their
This one seems to trip up everyone occasionally, often as a pure typo. Make sure to watch for it when you proofread. “There” is used many ways, including as a reference to a place, “let’s go there” or as a pronoun, “there is no hope”. “Their” is a plural possessive pronoun, as in “their bags” or “their opinions.” Always do the “that’s ours!” test—are you talking about more than one person and something that they possess? If so, “their” will get you there.  "They're" is a contraction for “they are,” as in “they're going to answer the homophone."  :)

Help the reader by carefully editing.  Be sure the sounds out of your phone/blog are pleasant to the ear/eye.

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