Top Spelling Blunders

Increase Your Credibility by Watching Out for These Commonly Misspelled Words

Grab your dictionaries and flip on your spell-checkers, because we are in for one exciting ride! We recently collected the most common spelling mistakes even the most credible expert authors make.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will present these pesky misspellings to you in order to help you maintain your credibility and build confidence in your writing skills. Without further ado, we give you: The Top 5 Spelling Blunders!

"loosing"

Loosing is the number one, most prevailing spelling blunder! It often occurs when the author intended to use the present participle of the word lose, as in losing weight and mistakenly adds a second o. The root of this blunder stems from the confusion between the words: lose and loose.

Here's the difference: Lose means loss and loose means something is, or has been, released (or something not firmly held in place).

Example: Sam tightened his loose belt after losing weight.

Key: What do winning and losing have in common? Both have only two vowels (winning = ii, losing = oi).

"todays"

Today can be defined as in the course of present time or this present time. The word today can be used as an adverb (qualifies or modifies an adjective) or a noun (person, place or thing). For the sake of brevity, we are going to concentrate on the noun: today.

Here's our issue with todays: it is a noun, sorely missing its good old friend the apostrophe. In order to form the possessive form of a singular noun, no matter what the last consonant is of the noun, you must always add an 's. To do otherwise, you will end up with the plural form of the noun (e.g. dog's vs. dogs, cat's vs. cats, etc.)

Example: John was featured in today's newspaper!

Key: If you state todays, you are essentially stating many present time, which would suggest a bend in the space-time continuum - present time overlapping present time... To fix this, simply add the apostrophe before the s: today's.

"everytime"

Unless you are referring to the Britney Spears pop song "Everytime", every and time should be written as two separate words. The confusion often occurs when writers think about compound words, such as everywhere. Compound words take on a whole new meaning than if they were separated. For instance, everywhere (all places) = every (each, all, any) where (place or position).

Example: Every time you publish an article, your exposure increases.

Key: Everyone, everywhere, should add a space every time.

"aircrafts"

Here's the deal with aircrafts: Whether it be singular or plural, the word aircraft is spelled the same way. Similar words include: moose, fish, and species.

Example: The aircraft are positioned on the carrier. Please watch your step when entering the aircraft.

Key: The pilot of the aircraft won't land when other aircraft are on the runway.

Alternately, this issue with aircrafts may be similar to our previously discussed issue of the possessive form: todays vs. today's.

Example: Please watch your step when descending the aircraft's staircase.

"ect"

No "ifs, ands, or buts," ect is not the correct abbreviation for et cetera. Et Cetera is a Latin expression meaning and so forth or and other things. Its correct abbreviation is etc.

Example: Writing supplies may include pens, pencils, paper, etc.

Key: Don't forget to pack eggplant, carrots, tomatoes, etc. in your lunch.

There you have it - the top 5 most common spelling blunders!

Israel ’s new ‘Cutting Edge’ Airport Security

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israelis are developing an airport security device that eliminates the privacy concerns that come with full-body scanners. It's an armored booth you step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on your person.

Israel sees this as a win-win situation for everyone, with none of this stuff about racial profiling. It will also eliminate the costs of long and expensive trials.

You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter, an announcement: “Attention, all standby passengers. El Al is proud to announce a seat available on flight 670 to London . Shalom!”

Record Crowd at "Reaching Your Members in the 21st Century"; Next Year - Orlando, FL, Nov. 8-11

More than 125 credit union  attendees from across the country participated recently in the conference program in Palm Springs, CA on "Reaching Your Members in the 21st Century. Key programs included:

• Reaching the Senior Market
• Sizzling Marketing in the 21st Century
• Selecting and Developing the Right Talent
• Gens X, Y and Z - The Future of Credit Unions
• The Right Business Models
• Trends in Retail Service
• The Hispanic Growth Opportunity
• Cales Cultures
• Today's Social Media Opportunities

If you weren't there, you missed a great educational opportunity. Mark your calendar for next year in Orlando for November 8-11, 2012.

Rather than tell you more, here's some photos from the conference.

Postal Cuts to Slow Mail Delivery

Facing bankruptcy, the U.S. Postal Service is pushing ahead with unprecedented cuts to first-class mail next spring that will slow delivery and, for the first time in 40 years, eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day.

The estimated $3 billion in reductions, to be announced in broader detail on Monday, are part of a wide-ranging effort by the cash-strapped Postal Service to quickly trim costs, seeing no immediate help from Congress.

The changes would provide short-term relief, but ultimately could prove counterproductive, pushing more of America's business onto the Internet. They could slow everything from check payments to Netflix's DVDs-by-mail, add costs to mail-order prescription drugs, and threaten the existence of newspapers and time-sensitive magazines delivered by postal carrier to far-flung suburban and rural communities.

That birthday card mailed first-class to Mom also could arrive a day or two late, if people don't plan ahead.

"It's a potentially major change, but I don't think consumers are focused on it and it won't register until the service goes away," said Jim Corridore, analyst with S&P Capital IQ, who tracks the shipping industry. "Over time, to the extent the customer service experience gets worse, it will only increase the shift away from mail to alternatives. There's almost nothing you can't do online that you can do by mail."

The cuts, now being finalized, would close roughly 250 of the nearly 500 mail processing centers across the country as early as next March. Because the consolidations typically would lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, the agency also would lower delivery standards for first-class mail that have been in place since 1971.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/postal-cuts-to-slow-delivery-of-first-class-mail/article_17a16f10-1650-5a75-918e-1453b9135e2f.html#ixzz1fclJ9IYA