Wednesday, August 19, 2009

32 Most Commonly Mis-used Words & Phrases

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This morning the Tattered Cover bookstore posted a link on their news feed over on FB that lists the 32 most common screw-ups in written English. As far as I'm concerned, it's required reading for anyone who wants to write. (So is Elements of Style by Strunk & White, which is much the same, but fussier and charmingly old-fashioned.) By now you know that I advocate that you split boldly the infinitive and mercilessly dangle that preposition when need presents itself. The tale is the master and the language servant to the need to get your point across. But there are rules of usage that cannot be set aside so easily. The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases Found on the "Help! Educational Blog" by the Help! Tutoring service. I haven't looked at this blog in awhile and it's generating some nice content.
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1 comment:

  1. Kristen M.August 19, 2009 at 11:57 AM

    I love it! I'll admit to a problem with lie/lay ... the rest, I'm fairly competent with.

    Another one that isn't on that list that I've actually seen a few times lately is principal instead of principle. That's quite an annoying one.

    And I think the word "literally" should be banned.

    ReplyDelete

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