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HOW TO SPOT—Some contractions and possessive forms of pronouns sound like each other. If you are aware of their auditory camouflage, though, you can still see them when you look at the words.

Why did the cat chase it’s tail?

Your my best friend.

HOW TO HANDLE—Familiarize yourself with the most commonly confused pairs of words: its/it’s, your/you’re, their/they’re, whose/who’s. In case of doubt, see if you can break the word into two words: e.g., will “it is” or “you are” work in place of the word? If you can break it into two, it’s a contraction and needs the apostrophe. If it can’t break in two, it doesn’t need the apostrophe because it’s the possessive form of a pronoun.

Why did the cat chase its tail?

You’re my best friend.

Species: Misplaced Apostrophe

HOW TO SPOT—These well-meaning critters have a poor sense of direction and just plunk down wherever when they find the end of a plural possessive word. They are often found sitting in front of the s when they should let the s connect to the word to show that it’s plural. Or, some Misplaced Apostrophes sit down after the s without considering that the word is already plural.

The girl’s uniforms were dirty after field hockey practice.

the womens’ secret society

HOW TO HANDLE—First decide if the possessive word is supposed to be singular or plural. For a possessive word that already has an s, just tack the apostrophe on to the end to make it possessive as well. If the word is a plural that doesn’t have an s (the word itself is a plural form), add an apostrophe and then an s, just like you would to a singular word.

The girls’ uniforms were dirty after field hockey practice.

the women’s secret society

Genus: Misspellings

Species: Junction Errors

HOW TO SPOT—These mutants are the result of word experiments gone terribly awry. Two word parts, such as a verb and a suffix, have been incorrectly joined together. With an understanding of phonics, you can recognize Junction Errors right away, because their misspelling leads to mispronouncing them.

Dinning room

Next-day shiping

HOW TO HANDLE—There are rules for determining how a root connects to a suffix. Though there are exceptions, here’s the general set of rules:

For a word ending in a double-consonant, just add on the suffix

befriend + -ing = befriending

friend + -ship = friendship

For a word ending in e, drop the e if the suffix begins with a vowel (this eliminates a confusing double-vowel sound)

loose × -en = loosen

loose + -ly = loosely

For a word ending in a consonant-vowel-consonant, double the last consonant if the suffix begins with a vowel (this is so the short vowel sound can be indicated by the double-consonant)

ship × -ing = shipping

ship + -ment = shipment

Hence:

Dining room

Next-day shipping

Species: Homophone Errors

HOW TO SPOT—These insidious sirens lure an inattentive speller to the rocks of blundering with their familiar song. Homophone Errors happen in writing when a word is confused for another perfectly valid word that sounds just like it.

Don’t slam on the breaks!

I’ve got a splinter in my heal.

HOW TO HANDLE—Since the “wrong” word is still spelled correctly, spell-checking software will overlook these mistakes. So might your eye. The only way to spot these is by carefully rereading your work (see “The Art of Editing,” below). Simply checking over what you’ve written is a grate, er, great way to catch these mistakes.

Don’t slam on the brakes!

I’ve got a splinter in my heel.

Species: Common Misspellings

HOW TO SPOT—The horde of Common Misspellings is diverse indeed: words with transposed letters, single letters instead of double letters, wrong vowels, and so on.

Restaraunt, cappucino, independant, definately, Sahara Dessert …

HOW TO HANDLE—Assuming you weren’t taught with phonics (and sometimes even if you were), you’ll need to have memorized the antidote to every individual Common Misspelling, of which there are hundreds. Until we’re capable of adding “extra memory” to our brains like we do with computers, why clog up precious mental resources? Instead, have