Skip to main content

Spelling: The Mechanics of Writing

Hello Friends,

This blog is my response to the task assigned to us by our teacher Vaidehi Ma'am in paper 209: Research Methodology. My topic is The Mechanics of Writing: Spelling and a brief note on it.

Spelling

Spelling should be consistent in a paper. Some words can be acceptably be spelled more than one way. So if you write acknowledgment in one place, use that spelling throughout instead of the variant spelling acknowledgement. (Quoted text, however, must follow the spelling shown in the source.)

Dictionaries

To ensure consistency, use a single dictionary, if an entry has variant spellings, generally adopt the spelling listed first.

Plurals

The plurals of nouns are generally formed by appending -s (kids, laws, stars, Fridays, Obamas) or, for words ending in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, and -z, appending -es (sketches, masses, Dickenses, brushes, taxes, Kleenexes, spritzes).

 Consult a dictionary for guidance about nonstandard plurals. 

⮚When the dictionary provides more than one plural form, generally use the first term listed. 

⮚ If the term has not been naturalized into English - that is, if it is labeled "foreign term", "French phrase," or the like in a dictionary - add an s (e.g., mise en abyme becomes mise en abymes). Terms such as these should appear in italics in your prose.

⮚Some words, like data and politics, can be construed as singular or plural. The dictionary usually tells you when this is the case. 

Word Division

Turn off the automatic-hyphenation option in your word processor. Dividing words at the ends of lines are unnecessary in a research paper, and it has disadvantages. A word divided between lines is harder to read, and the reader sometimes cannot tell whether the hyphen it contains is part of your spelling or part of the spelling in text you are quoting.

Foreign Words

If you quote material in a foreign language, you must reproduce all accents and other marks exactly as they appear in the original. If you need marks that are not available in your word processor, write them in by hand.


Works Cited

The Modern Language Association of America. MLA Handbook. 9th ed., PDF file, Modern Language Assn. of America, 2021.

Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed., Modern Language Assn. of America, 2009.

Popular posts from this blog

A Brief Note on Translation

Khushbu Lakhupota  MA Semester 4 Paper 208 Comparative Literature & Translation Studies   Written Assignment  A Brief Note on Translation  Batch 2020-2022 Submitted to: Department of English, MKBU. khushbu22jan93@gmail.com  18 March 2022, Friday  Translation is the bridge and the road that connects to the world of knowledge. Translation study makes the writers work known beyond their own linguistic boundaries. To achieve a high standard in Translation and faithful to the original text one has to take note of the linguistic problems and refer to the theoretical components. Many writers have formulated theories of Translation and established the principles for the Translators. Problem of Equivalence is a major concern in any theory of translation. Translation equivalence is a semiotic category comprising syntactic, and semantic components. Translators must study the translation theories that can be used as a guideline for the production of translation. Se...

Post Colonialism

Respected Sir,              This blog is my response to the task assigned to us about the Postcolonialism Today and the key ideas discussed by Bill Ashcroft.                       First of all I would like to say thank you to our Professor Dr.Dilip Barad Sir for giving us this wonderful opportunity to attend the session of Bill Ashcroft and many more such educational sessions for a better knowledge and experience.                                  Postcolonialism is constantly changing and developing. Post colonial theory is that branch of contemporary theory that investigates and develops prepositions about the cultural and political impact of European Conquest upon colonized societies and the nature of those society's responses. So there's two aspects to it. It's the analysis of the impact of European co...

Modern Poems

Hello Friends,  This blog is my response to the task of the thinking activity given to us by our Prof.Dr.DilipSir, Head of the English Department, M K Bhavnagar University, on the Modern Poems. Read, understand and enjoy. Happy Learning! Click here for Sir's blog "The Pool" By  Hilda Doolittle Are you alive?  I touch you.  You quiver like a sea-fish.  I cover you with my net.  What are you—banded one? A reading of a classic Imagist poem ‘The Pool’ is, along with ‘Oread’, Hilda Doolittle’s finest achievement as an Imagist poet. The poem was first published in the 1915 anthology Some Imagist Poets. You can read ‘The Pool’ here (all five lines of it), before proceeding to our analysis of this curious little poem. ‘The Pool’ is one of the most famous and widely discussed Imagist poems, and in many ways it conforms to the central ‘tenets’ of that movement as set out by Ezra Pound in his unofficial manifesto, ‘A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste’. It’s unrhymed, it has n...