View source for Writing - written

'''Writing''' - the [[present participle]] and [[verbal noun]] of the [[Write (irregular verb)|irregular verb 'to write']] is one of the 117 mis-spellings listed as 'Common difficulties' in the section on 'Spelling' within 'Writing' in [[UEfAP]]. The difficulty arises over whether the '-t-' should be doubled or not. This may be the result of confusion between the [[-ing participle]] and the [[-ed participle]].
*The [[-ing participle]] of 'to '''write'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> (as used in such constructions as "I am writing ..." and "My writing hand is the right") and the [[verbal noun]], e.g. "writing is hard" and "I can't stand his writing", are both spelled <big>'''writing'''</big> - with a single '-t-'. It is pronounced, like the [[base form]], with the [[long '-i-']], rhyming with 'sight', 'white' and the vowel of 'rhyme': {{IPA|aɪ}}. (The [[verbal noun]] can have a plural, as when publishers call the "definitive collection " of the central thinker in the nineteenth century Transcendentalist school ''The Essential '''Writings''' of Ralph Waldo Emerson''.)
*The [[-ed participle]] of 'to '''write'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> (as used in such constructions as "I have written to her today" and "the written word carries more weight in courts of law than the spoken", is written with a [[doubled consonant|double '-t--']], <big>'''written'''</big>. It is pronounced with the [[short '-i-']] of such words as 'it', 'this' and 'thin', and the first vowel of 'little' and 'kitten': {{IPA|ɪ}}.

 If you have difficulty with these, remember the pronunciation:<br>    '''writing''' sounds like '''write''': both have one '-t-';<br>    '''written''' sounds like 'kitten', 'mitten', [[smite|smitten']] and 'bitten': all have double '-t-'.    

*This simple picture can be muddied by the existence of '''writ''', which has several different significations. It may be confusing because it has the same [[short '-i-']] as 'written' (its [[plural]] is [[homophone|homophonous]] with 'Ritz'), but is spelled with a single '-t-'.
**It was an archaic form of the [[-ed participle]] of 'to '''write'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>, and has been used sometimes by poets and other writers aiming for an archaic effect, as for example Edward Fitzgerald wrote of the [[moving finger]] 
::::The Moving Finger writes; and, having '''writ''',
:::::Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
::::Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
:::::Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it
and the gravestone of [[Keats]] bears, as he asked, the simple line ""Here lies one whose name was '''writ''' in water." (The phrase was used earlier by Beaumont and Fletcher's ''Phylaster'' (1620: v 57): "All your better deedes shall be in water writ; but this in marble", and by [[Shakespeare]] and Fletcher in ''Henry VIII'' (1623, IV ii 46): 
::::"Mens euill manners liue in Brasse, their Vertues 
::::We write in Water."  (Both quotations cited by''[[OED]]''.)
***The phrase '''writ large''', originally used with a [[literal]] sense of 'having large letters [in the manuscript]', but now a journalistic cliché applied [[figurative]]ly to mean 'prominently', 'easy to see'. It can be subverted to such phrases as <nowiki>'</nowiki>'''writ''' small'.
**'''Writ''' can be a [[noun]] 
***in general discourse it has the sense of 'something written', particularly since the [[Reformation]], to refer to the [[Bible]] in the phrases '''Holy Writ''' and '''Sacred Writ'''
***In law, a '''writ''' is a specific kind of document: one where a court issues an order, sometimes a prohibition. (In earlier times, it was an order issued in writing by the royal court, for example to summon members of Parliament to a session. This gives rise to a meaning close to that of 'jurisdiction., as in 'within the King's writ' and '[X]'s '''writ''' runs over ...' (i.e. X has authority for ...').) 

 The verb 'to write' belongs to Quirk's Class 4 C a. 

[[Category:Gillett spellings]] 
[[Category:Spelling common errors]]
[[Category:Quirk class 4]]
[[Category:Quirk class 4 C]]
[[Category:Spelling pattern - doubled consonant]]
[[Category:English literature]]