Tricky spellings

It's easy to prevent these common mistakes.

Argue/arguing/argument	It is argue but arguing and argument drop the 'e'.
Benefited	Benefited has only one 't' normally, though two 't's are now accepted.
Commitment/committed/ committing	Commitment has only one 't'. Committed has two 't's. Committing has two 't's.
Affect/effect	Affect is a verb. Effect is a noun
Focused or focussed; focusing or focussing	It can be spelled both ways, though one 's' is more common.
Independent	Remember that all the vowels are 'e'.
Lead/led	Led (pronounced to rhyme with 'Ted') is the past tense of 'to lead' (pronounced to rhyme with 'need'). He is often led astray by others. He leads others astray. Lead is the metal (obviously pronounced ‘led’ to rhyme with ‘Ted'!) The pupils learned about lead in their science class.
A lot	Should always be two separate words.
Practice/practise	Practice is a noun Practise is a verb.
Separate	There is ‘a rat’ in the middle of separate... There isn’t in desperate (but you would never use this in a report, would you?).

You can always check spellings with online dictionaries such as Chambers.

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