Homophones Hurt Your Writing: Censor, Censure, Sensor and Censer

Welcome to this edition of Words For Thought, the blog on wordrefiner.com. Like many of the previous blogs we are looking at homophones. Words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings. 
I understand how important it is to have an error free manuscript. With over 40 years of experience, I have found that homophones give almost every writer fits and difficulties. Because we sound words out in our mind, it is easy to write the wrong word.
Let’s not forget typographical errors also, a slip of the finger on the keyboard can create a different word that may not be caught by a spell-checker. There are many groups of words that vary by only one letter, such as vary and very, or must, mist and most.
The correctly spelled word in the wrong context will not be flagged by most spell-checkers. Word Refiner is dedicated to uprooting all of these hidden errors and providing your document free of spelling errors that you want and deserve. I find these invisible spelling errors in 95% of published books!

Now, onto today’s episode! First in the series of Quadruple Homophones.

Censor provides us with a word many of us are very familiar with: censorship, we have heard it in many places and commonly applied to the spoken or written word.  We tend to get riled up when faced with the specter of censorship!  The Constitution  and the Bill Of Rights guarantees our Freedom of Speech.
Censure this involves an official reprimand or punishment.  If a member of Congress is convicted of a crime, this member would also receive a censure from the other members of Congress.
Sensor This is a piece of equipment that responds to an external stimuli.  Many of us have an outdoor light that comes on automatically when dusk arrives.  Many of us have walked towards the door of a commercial establishment and a sensor causes the door to open automatically.
Censer This one is probably the least familiar to most of us, unless you are an avid attender at church .  A lot of churches have a person or persons that light the candles at the front of the church.  The title for the candle-lighter is Censer.
There we are, four words that sound alike; okay, you have to fudge a little pronouncing the second one, don't spoil our fun.  
I have avoided censure by replacing the sensor for the censer, so there is no need to censor my post.  

There they are, four words with identical sounds.  If you use the wrong word the reader might think they hit an invisible tree root and lose the reading momentum you worked so hard to build.  Use every tool available to prevent that from happening, do not give your readers a reason to not finish your story. Use Word Refiner, beta readers, critique partners, proofreaders and editors to ensure that your work is error free and as smooth as possible.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this issue of Homophones Hurt Your Writing on Words For Thought.  Follow me on twitter: @wordrefiner, for more alerts about hazardous homophones search for  #HomophonesHurtYourWriting or #TyposHurtYourWriting on twitter.
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​quadruple homophones

Remember: Words Have Meaning and Spelling Makes a Difference. 

​Copyright © 2015 Mark L Schultz 
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