SPaG is writer shorthand for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. It is the most basic level of revision. Most word programs have built in spell and grammar checks. They may even alert you to punctuation errors such as not using a question mark where you need one.
Spelling
Let’s look at spelling first. You may think spellcheck is your friend. Beware! Unfortunately your computer cannot distinguish between rode and road; sink and synch; or weight and wait. It is your job to proofread for meaning. The English language has hundreds of homophones, words that sound alike but are spelled differently. If you’re unsure of proper spelling look it up! Some homophones are tricky like compliment and complement. They sound exactly the same, look almost the same but have completely different meanings.
Punctuation
Make sure every sentence starts with a capital letter and has ending punctuation. Capitalize proper nouns no matter where they fall in a sentence. In English, days of the week and months of the year always start with a capital letter.
Ending punctuation helps your reader understand your intent. Questions end with question marks, statements with periods. You don’t want to wear your reader out by using too many exclamation marks, so use them sparingly.
Here is a quick review from last week’s post on quotation marks: Quotation marks are used for dialog, embedded quotes, citations, and to indicate sarcasm or irony.
A future post will delve into comma usage. At a very basic level, commas are used when you want to separate parts of your sentence. For instance, use commas to separate items in a series of three or more: Eula visited with cousins, helped with chores, and attended church; to separate independent clauses when joined by a conjunction: She enjoyed her trips to civilization, but having Dad home meant she could return to carefree life on the ranch; and to separate two or more adjectives that describe the same noun: How she loved to climb on the wide, wooden fence slats and talk to the ponies.
Grammar
As a native English speaker, I depend on my ear to weed out poor grammar. The train isn’t due for a hour doesn’t fall right on my ear. The train isn’t due for an hour sounds better. Eula were unable to sit a moment more doesn’t sound right. When I change it to Eula was unable to sit a moment more, I’ve corrected the subject verb agreement and it sounds one hundred percent better.
When revising, don’t rely on your word processor’s built in programs to check spelling, punctuation, and grammar. They’re a great place to start but they won’t catch all your SPaG mistakes. Review your punctuation, use a dictionary to double check spelling, and read your work aloud before turning in your paper. You’ll be glad you did.
