I've had to proofread the writing of others for a number of years now. Let me say for the record that I'm the perfect person for the job because I'm anal about it, particularly in business writing. I'm a decent speller, and I'm not so bad with grammar either. If folks at work ever have a question about the appropriate word to use in a sentence, most of the time I'm the go-to guy. And I'm the first to point out typos in the writings of my co-workers (especially my boss--I have to help him look good, you know).
What absolutely chaps me is seeing people use the wrong word in a sentence, particulary homophones. You know what those are--they're those words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Like "too", "to", and "two", for example. It's not just new writers that have this problem, either. My wife and I watched a professional video the other night where one of the menu items was labeled "Sneak Peak" -- and the content of that option had nothing to do with mountaintops.
When you have three possible choices for a given word, and they all are pronounced the same, what's the difference? Why not just pick one and go for it? If you look at the title of this article, that's exactly what I did. So what's the big deal? The sounds are still the same, and that's all that matters, isn't it?
Actually, in speaking, it is only the sound that matters. You can be thinking "too" and pronounce "to" and your listener will pick up on which of the two (no pun intended) words you actually meant, based on your content. In writing, it's a different matter entirely. The word you spell conveys the meaning. Put in the wrong word and your intent changes completely.
So how do you avoid including the wrong homophone in your writing? In a day and age when the vast majority of authoring is done on a computer with a connection to the Internet, there really is no excuse. Go to dictionary.com and type in the word you want to use. If the definition matches the concept you're trying to convey, then use it. If not, or if you're not sure, go to thesaurus.com, type in your word, and see if the synonyms listed have similar definitions. If neither of these options works for you, then don't put in a word to fill a hole; instead, change the sentence and use different wording to make your point. It may not make a difference to you, but at least one of your readers will be intelligent enough to know that you meant "piqued" (aroused interest or curiosity) but wrote "peeked" (caught a quick or furtive look or glance) instead--and that affects your credibility as a writer. (By the way, don't count on your spellchecking program to resolve this issue. The program only identifies misspelled words, not properly-spelled words used incorrectly.)
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