Useful Tip

Spelling in English is a complex art, with many rules, and even more exceptions. You would think that [oo] is pronounced [u:], like in "moon", "soon", "balloon", but then you find words such as "door" or "flood", where the same combination of letters sounds totally different. Or the other way round: words like "meet" and "meat", "there" and "they're" and "their", where similar or identical sounds are represented by different combinations of letters... Some of the pronunciation/ spelling problems are universal: all the learners, and even some of the native speakers have them, while others are shared only by the Japanese . I'm sure you know by now what I'm talking about: the problems with [l] and [r], [b] and [v], [s] and [th]...

Remembering all the rules and all the exceptions is difficult and time-consuming, but technology can help. One very easy way to avoid misspelling words is to use Microsoft Word (or just temporarily copy-paste your Latex document in Word), and let the Autocorrect function work its magic. All misspelt words will be underlined in red, and a right-click will give you spelling suggestions. If you have all the dictionaries installed, a green line will even show you some of the grammatical constructions that might be wrong.

Simple and useful, wouldn't you say? Try to use it once.

If you know any other useful tips, don't hesitate to share them with us!