Common Word-Choice Errors

 

By Bobbie Christmas 

 

Q: What are the most common errors you find in manuscripts you edit?

 

A: I find and correct errors in word choice, punctuation, spelling, grammar, and more, so the answer is far too long to address in full here. My Purge Your Prose of Problems reference book (available only through my website, ZebraEditor.com) cites more than seven hundred errors I’ve spotted repeatedly in manuscripts I’ve edited. Here I’ll address a few specific word choices that confuse many writers. 

 

COMPLIMENT/COMPLEMENT

Compliment as a verb means to flatter. (I complimented her on her dress.) 

Compliment as a noun means an admiring remark. (She smiled at the compliment.)

Complement as a verb means to complete. (The mask complemented her costume.)

Complement as a noun means something that completes or makes perfect. (The written report was the perfect complement to her business proposal.) 

 

INSURE/ENSURE

Ensure means to make sure. (I took a course in CPR to ensure I could help my husband if he had a heart attack.)

Insure means to cover with insurance. (The policy insured my house, but not my car.) 

 

AFFECT/EFFECT

Affect is a verb that most commonly is used in the sense of to influence. (He learned how smoking affects his health.) 

Affect can also mean to feign for effect. (She affected an English accent to impress her future boss.) 

Effect, however, can be either a verb or a noun. 

As a verb effect means to bring about or execute. (The layoffs were designed to effect savings.) 

As a noun effect means something brought about by a cause or an agent; a result. (The new carpet had a dramatic effect on the room.) 

 

Use extreme caution when choosing between affect and effect. “These measures may affect savings” implies that the measures may reduce savings that have already been realized, whereas “These measures may effect savings” implies that the measures will save money. 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT/ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Many Americans get the spelling of acknowledgment wrong because Brits spell it with an extra e, but Americans should not. If publishing in America, spell acknowledgment with no e after the g. 

 

INSIGHT/INCITE

Incite is a verb that means to cause someone to act in an angry, harmful, or violent way. (She intended to incite a riot with her comments.) 

Insight is a noun that means the ability to understand people and situations in a very clear way. (After listening, she had more insight into his character.) 

 

SIGHT/SITE

Sight refers to a view, picture, or display. (The sight of the sun rising filled her with excitement.) 

Site refers to a location or position. (The building site was near a river.)

 

LEAD/LED

Lead (pronounced “leed”) is a verb. (She always leads the parade.)

Led (pronounced “led”) is the past tense of to lead. (She led the parade last Saturday.)

Lead (pronounced “led”) is a noun. (Car batteries contain lead.) 

 

As a last but vital entry, many folks get nauseous and nauseated confused. 

 

NAUSEOUS/NAUSEATED

Nauseate and nauseated are verbs that mean to feel or cause to feel nausea, loathing, or disgust. (The smell nauseated the workers.)

Nauseous, however is an adjective that mean causing nausea or sickening. (A nauseous odor rose from the decomposing body.)

If you write that a character was nauseous, it means the person was making other people sick. Nauseated suggests a condition induced by an external cause. By contrast, nauseous is an adjective that refers to a state whose cause may be unknown. (He became nauseated when he looked at the nauseous color of her gown.)

Caution: If you say, “I feel nauseous,” it means you are making other people sick. The correct word choice is nauseated. “I feel nauseated.” Choosing the wrong word may make your editor nauseated. 

 

*

 

Bobbie Christmas is a book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications. She will answer your questions too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com or BZebra@aol.com. Read Bobbie’s Zebra Communications blog at https://www.zebraeditor.com/blog/.

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2 comments Ask the book doctor, Bobbie Christmas, common grammar mistakes, word choice errors

This Post Brought To You By the Letter C

The Unreal Conditional

The following is a real conversation I had with one of the Junior Halls. (Whose name shall not be divulged to protect the innocent.)

JH: If I was the President—

Me: Were

JH: (Continuing as if I hadn’t spoken) If I was the Presi—

Me: Were

JH: IF I WAS THE P—

Me: WERE. It’s were, were, were! (Followed by a somewhat boring, possibly lengthy explanation of why it’s were.)

However, I have several topics to cover here and I suspect that like my Junior Hall, you don’t really want the whole boring, possibly lengthy explanation of the conditional when dealing with the unreal or hypothetical. (That right there is a mouthful, isn’t it?)

Suffice it to say that I hear this construction used incorrectly often. People (besides the Junior Halls) want to use “was” when there are times when “were” is correct. So here is my short and delightful way to know whether to use “was” or “were” in the conditional:

Think of the musical, Fiddler on the Roof. In If I Were a Rich Man, Tevye rushes to finish back-breaking chores before the Sabbath begins. He sings of the day when he doesn’t have to work so hard, when he has one staircase leading up and another staircase leading down and still another leading nowhere. It’s a funny and yet poignant song because Tevye…well, Tevye is never going to be a rich man but a fellow can dream, right? So, if you are about to start a sentence (or clause) with “if” and you are going down a hypothetical or unreal path, think of Tevye and use were, please.


The Joy of Correspondence

Speaking of Junior Halls, I’m cleaning up around here because now, I mostly work in what was Mister Man’s office, and thinking I would paint, I took down all kinds of stuff from the walls in the upstairs office I once used. But the stuff that caught my eye—that I stopped to read once again—were the cards, the notes, the letters written by Mister Man, the Junior Halls, and friends.

Sometimes, I laughed out loud, because honestly, the Junior Halls are very funny. But I also teared up, because honestly, those Junior Halls, and Mister Man, and many of my friends, write the sweetest, spirit-lifting things. And here’s my point here: I am so glad that all these people that I love took the time to write.

Sure, it’s lovely to have a call, and a text is nice, too. But letters, notes, cards…oh, my goodness, what joy that brings to the recipient! So send a note. Add your heartfelt words to a card. Write a letter to someone you love. I promise you, that someone will save and treasure those words long after you’ve forgotten writing them.


The Importance of Continuance

No, I’m not talking about the legal continuance; I mean the quality of enduring.

Along with taking stuff from the walls (see above), I also cleaned out a few folders of writing stuff, notes I’d taken from websites and writers and such that obviously were important enough to save.

Oh. My. Word. Time and time again, I found these sites were defunct, that somewhere along the line in the last ten years (ten years!), it had all sort of…just…disappeared. So if you are a writer who has stuck with it, if you are still standing ten years on, I salute you! Because I am sure you have achieved goals beyond your wildest writing dreams, even if it doesn’t feel that way to you.

If I were the President, I’d give you a special Medal of Continuance. Because you deserve it! (And if you have a C-word-of-writing-wisdom, please share!)


~Cathy C. Hall (Who always spells her name with a C, thank you very much.)

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13 comments Cathy C. Hall, common grammar mistakes, conditional, Fiddler on the Roof, letter-writing, perseverance

Two Little Words Used Incorrectly

Okay, y’all, I’m not going to beat around the writing bush, I’m just going to say it: I’m tired of seeing the same writing errors in almost everything I read. Errors that I didn’t see even just a few years ago.

I have a couple of theories as to why I keep seeing these errors, but this isn’t really about the why. Instead, let’s just tackle one of these problems today and perhaps in our own little way, we can fix the writing world.

So, on to the pesky proper use of “affect” and “effect.” They sound alike, don’t they? Especially if you happen to be Southern like me. But they are not alike. And nothing makes me cringe more than when I see these two words used incorrectly. (When I hear these words, I automatically hear the correct one, thus giving the speaker the benefit of the doubt. The poor writer who uses these words incorrectly is not so lucky.)

Now, here’s what I find interesting. The spell check function will point out when one of these words is used incorrectly. Yes, it’s right there, underlined in red; all one has to do is correct it. And yet, still it remains, in all its glaring inglorious wrongness in blog posts, essays, even newspapers.

Clearly, people are ignoring spell check and deciding that they know the proper use of these words better than a computer program. Of course, there are plenty of times when a computer cannot be trusted; this is not one of them.

But for those of you who still need convincing (and help), let’s review quickly—and simply—about “effect” and “affect.”

The word “affect” is usually used as a verb, and “effect” is usually used as a noun.

“Affect” means to bring about a change, and “effect” is the result of a change.

“Oh,” exclaimed Cathy, “I was terribly moved by that play! But the effect of sitting for three and a half hours and enjoying adult beverages has affected my ability to stand.”

See? It’s just verbs and nouns, people. And yes, fine, it can be more complicated than that, so if you want an entire lesson then go see what Grammarly has to say about it here. But really, nine and a half out of ten times, it’s just remembering that the verb is “affect’ and the noun is “effect.”

And before you say, “For cryin’ out loud, Cathy, it’s not that big of a deal,” I’m going to stop you. If you are a brain surgeon or an astronaut or a fashion model, then you can possibly get away with using these two words incorrectly. But if you are a professional writer, then editors and other professionals in the writing industry have certain expectations. Namely, that you know the difference between “affect” and “effect.”

So, fix it, little grasshopper, and err no more.

Cathy C. Hall is a kidlit author and humor writer. She's not really fanatical when it comes to words, but if you use "their" for "they're" then chances are good that she'll scream.

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7 comments affect, Cathy C. Hall, common grammar mistakes, effect, Grammarly

A New Style Guide? 5 Reasons (of Many!) to Read It

Photo Credit | EKHumphrey

You may see Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century in the bookstore and dismiss it as just another style guide. Well, it’s not just another style guide. There are many reasons I would recommend this book to writers and editors. Here are my top five: 

1. The Sense of Style is conversational. I’ve read many dense and dry textbooks. (Haven’t we all?) Pinker makes the study of language accessible and, oddly, fun. He writes about grammatical concepts as if he’s explaining them to a relative. His balance of contemporary versus classic writing also reinforces the user-friendliness of the book. (It’s okay if your relative mentions Oedipus occasionally to make a point about sentence structure, but rather tiresome if those are the only examples.) 
2.  The Sense of Style is a visual book. No, it’s not a picture book; however, Pinker uses webs and diagrams and line drawings and nodes to illustrate his approach to writing well. His approach uses these “trees” to tease out how to build strong sentences. If you’ve ever had trouble with grammar, Pinker sympathizes with you, as a writer or reader. The line drawings help to illustrate not only grammar concepts but how confusing other concepts, like sentence diagramming can be. 
3.  Pinker deflates bad advice. Admittedly, I’ve never been a big fan of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style and some other language books. One of the tenets of The Elements of Style—“14. Use the active voice”—most writers can recite in their sleep. Pinker writes early in his book that “Linguistic research as shown that the passive construction has a number of indispensable functions because of the way it engages a reader’s attention and memory.” He is a scientist and has research to reinforce his points on strong language.
4. Pinker embraces the fact that language has changed—and will—change over time. Throughout this guide, Pinker dissects classic and contemporary writing. In doing so, he manages to bring the reader with him on the journey of the changes of our language. He inspects the sentences, twisting them in the light and bringing the spotlight to a phrase or sentence structure. 
5. The Sense of Style has practical reference sections. How do the “purists” believe a word should be used and how is the word commonly used? Or what is the preferred usage of a word versus its problematic usage? Pinker lists some of the ones that trip up many writers and the lists are infinitely useful (and educational!). Along the way, Pinker inserts his humor. For example, in the Comment column he refers to one problematic usage as “Nails on a chalkboard.”

Is there a language book that you've enjoyed and has made you think of language a new way? If so, what book is it?

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and editor enjoying reading outdoors in the fall weather. She has lately been spending a lot of time with pumpkins and warm drinks.

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3 comments common grammar mistakes, Elizabeth King Humphrey, grammar, language, Steven Pinker, style guides

Writing Errors

Error photo by Nick J Webb | via Flickr

Writing errors happen. 

A couple years before I graduated, I met a fellow student in the grad school computer lab. It wasn't until the final months of school that someone told her how she had to format her thesis--she had nearly 700 pages she had typed using a typewriter. In order to meet the graduation requirements, she needed to re-type her entire manuscript and format it as the school required. From her panicked face, I could tell that she would probably have a few errors in her finished thesis.

It was, unfortunately, the nature of the process. Finding errors in one's writing is also the nature of the process of writing.

My master's thesis (a less-than-700-page novel) received comments from a few non-committee readers. For the most part, they were positive comments on a draft that I had re-worked fairly well. However, some of the readers pointed out that I had grammar errors here and punctuation errors there.

Embarrassingly, one glaring error occurred on the first page of my thesis. For someone who believed she had almost error-free writing, it was a humbling experience. (Excuse mode: Admittedly, as one prepares for a thesis defense, formatting enters into the equation more than ever before and sometimes, while one looks at margin spacing, errors creep into the text.)


Errors crop up--even for the most careful of writers. Some are errors of style (unnecessary capitalization) and others are grammar (split infinitive anyone?). Others may be continuity issues--Jude in chapter one is referred to as Jim in chapter six. Often a writer is consistent in the errors made (which makes it easier to edit) and, then again, the writer is widely inconsistent in the errors cropping up (a bear to edit).

So when are the errors too many errors? Lately I've been reading a few editors discuss this subject. No one has a good answer--there is no golden number or glaring error that sends up a red flag.

But for me, there are too many errors in someone's writing when the reader is pulled out of the story because the errors are jarring and makes the reader leave the story to figure out what the writer meant.

If I am finding lots of errors, I stop reading the plot and start looking for errors. In one particular published novel, there were a couple errors that were whopping. (Feet instead of inches errors. Yes, I sent an email to the publisher.) 

So, if you have a reader who can't get past the first few errors on the early pages, maybe you've found someone to edit your work. 

What errors do you notice in your writing? What errors do you notice in the writing of others?


Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer (who makes errors) and an editor (who tries not to err). Regardless, she's on Twitter @Eliz_Humphrey.

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6 comments common grammar mistakes, Elizabeth King Humphrey, learning from mistakes, spelling mistakes

TYPO Is Just a Euphemism! Common Grammar Flubs...

by Arlene Miller

A couple of years ago, former spelling bee champion Jeff Deck and his friend Benjamin Herson embarked upon The Great Typo Hunt, a road trip from coast to coast of the United States in which they located and corrected typos! The journey has now been made into a book and a blog. They found over 400 typos on their trip.

Now, you and I both know that these really were not all typos...a typo is when your fingers inadvertently hit the wrong key, right? For the most part, these are MISTAKES!!!!!

Well, as an editor, teacher, and author of The Best Little Grammar Book Ever, I know a mistake when I see one. What do you think are some of the most common mistakes in grammar (spelling, punctuation, and usage)? My book covers a myriad of mistakes, but when I really think about it, there are a few mistakes that appear over and over and over again. I was hoping to give you a Top Ten List, but I think it is going to be a mere Top Four!

In no real particular order, here are the Top Four Grammar Mistakes of the Current Time:

1. What is with that apostrophe in a plain old plural noun?

Here are my vacation photo’s! What?? Oh, you mean photos!!

There is NO apostrophe in a plural noun unless it is a number, letter, or symbol (a’s, 5’s, &’s).

2. Doesn’t anyone know the difference between your and you’re anymore, or are they just too lazy to use the apostrophe? (Hint: Take the apostrophe from the plural it doesn’t belong in!)

I hope your coming with us. Huh??? Oh, you mean you’re!

3. Just because you say “Harry and I are going to the movies,” you don’t have to use I all the time. Sometimes it really is ME! If the pronoun is a direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition, you use me (or her or him or them or us or whom!)

He gave the tickets to my friend and I. Well, if he didn’t give the tickets to I, then he didn’t give the tickets to my friend and I either! Me is correct here.

4. YOU CANNOT SEPARATE TWO SENTENCES WITH A COMMA!!!!! (Oh, I am sorry...am I shouting?) You just can’t. It is called a comma splice.

I hope you can attend the meeting, it will be very productive. Sorry, no way. (Oh, is that a comma splice?) There are several ways to fix this:
I hope you can attend the meeting. It will be very productive.
I hope you can attend the meeting; it will be very productive.
I hope you can attend the meeting because it will be very productive.

***

Arlene Miller is a writer, editor, and teacher. Her business, bigwords101, provides grammar and business writing workshops to corporations and other groups. Her workshops use her book, The Best Little Grammar Book Ever!

The Best Little Grammar Book Ever is available on Arlene’s website, as well as on Amazon (and Kindle), Barnes and Noble (and Nook), and other online booksellers.

Find out more about Arlene by visiting her website, http://www.bigwords101.com/,  or contact her via email at bigwords101[at]yahoo[dot]com.

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5 comments Arlene Miller, common grammar mistakes, grammar tips

Grammar: Slips, Trips, and Falls

by Annette Fix

When it comes to grammar, word usage, and the finer points of writing (or speaking) the English language, there are so many rules to remember--and so many opportunities to make mistakes.

Here are a few basic tips to help you understand the more frequent causes of slips, trips, and face-plant falls in your writing.

Lie/Lay/Lain and Lay/Laid/Laid
This is one of the top 10 most common mistakes.

INCORRECT: I like reading more than laying around watching TV.
CORRECT: I like reading more than lying around watching TV.

PRESENT TENSE Lie/Lay
Lie means to rest. (The dog lies in the yard.) It's an intransitive verb and doesn't need a direct object. You can't lie something; however, you can lay something.

Lay is a transitive verb and means to place or to put. Use lay when you can substitute the word set. (She lays the book across her lap.)

PAST TENSE Lay/Laid
The past tense of lie is also lay. So, this is what those sentences would look like in past tense:
The dog lay in the yard.
She laid the book across her lap.

PAST PARTICIPLE Lain/Laid
The past participle of lie is lain.
The dog has lain in the same spot in the yard for a week. (Yes, she's still alive, it's just her favorite spot.) ;-)

The past participle of lay is laid.
She has laid the book across her lap at 3pm every day since Sunday.

The best way to avoid making a lie/lay mistake is to memorize how the two verbs function:
Lie/Lay/Lain
I want to lie on the beach. I lay on the beach last Saturday. I have often lain on the beach.

Lay/Laid/Laid
Lay the book on the table. She laid the book on the table. She has laid the book on the table many times.

Subject - Predicate(Verb) Agreement
There are 12 different rules of subject/predicate agreement, but I'll only cover the most common rule that trips many writers.

INCORRECT: The cost of basic necessities such as gasoline and groceries have risen exponentially.
CORRECT: The cost of basic necessities such as gasoline and groceries has risen exponentially.

It's common to mistakenly pair a plural predicate with a singular subject (or vice versa) when the the subject and predicate are separated by a phrase containing singular and/or plural nouns.

In the sample sentence above, the cost is the subject that has risen exponentially. Always keep your eye on the subject.

Who vs. Whom

INCORRECT: Whom shall I say is calling?
CORRECT: Who shall I say is calling?

This rule is easy to understand when you take a minute to mentally rearrange the sentence and exchange the who with she and whom with her.

Who = she
Whom = her
The correct choice is who because she is calling.

It also works with whoever/whomever.
INCORRECT: Tell the story to whoever you want.
CORRECT: Tell the story to whomever you want.

Whoever = she
Whomever = her
The correct choice is whomever because you want to tell the story to her.

Between You and I vs. Between You and Me

INCORRECT: Everyone overheard the disagreement between you and I.
CORRECT: Everyone overheard the disagreement between you and me.

The first sentence may sound correct, but between is a preposition and prepositions must be followed by an object. (Remember the preposition tree from grade school? A preposition can be in a tree, on a tree, near a tree, under a tree, over a tree, for a tree, etc.)

I is a subject/nominative pronoun (as are he, she, we, and they).
Objective pronouns: me, you, him, her, us, and them follow a preposition.

INCORRECT: Everyone overheard the disagreement between you and they.
CORRECT: Everyone overheard the disagreement between you and them.

Me vs. I

I know... You thought we covered that confusing usage in the last example. Well, not quite. Some people automatically assume that if the sentence sounds more formal, it must be the correct word choice. Wrong.

INCORRECT: He brought pizza for Angela and I.
CORRECT: He brought pizza for Angela and me.

Again, think about the preposition tree. In this sentence, Angela and me are direct objects.

Another grammar slip often occurs in sentences when than or as is used.

INCORRECT: She is smarter than me.
CORRECT: She is smarter than I.

In a comparison using than or as when the last portion of the sentence is dropped, just tack on the missing words and the proper word choice will be obvious.

She is smarter than I am.

With a little practice and a true love for the written word, grammar really can be fun!

I had an early start. On Saturday mornings, in between my favorite cartoons, the 1970's Schoolhouse Rock! commercials took my Generation X mind on a musical grammar train with songs like "Conjunction Junction," "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here," and "Verb: That's What's Happening." As a matter of fact, I remember having quite a crush on Verb Man.

But I'll save you from listening to me reminisce while singing the lyrics; instead, I'll share a list of 31 random writing tips emailed to me by a fellow scribe. I'm sure it's making the rounds like the urban legend about the tourist's missing kidney.

Enjoy:

1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.

2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.

4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

5. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They're old hat)

6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.

7. Be more or less specific.

8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.

9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.

10. No sentence fragments.

11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.

12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.

14. One should NEVER generalize.

15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

16. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

17. One-word sentences? Eliminate.

18. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

19. The passive voice is to be ignored.

20. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.

21. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.

22. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.

23. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas.

24. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

25. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.

26. Puns are for children, not groan readers.

27. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

28. Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

29. Who needs rhetorical questions?

30. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

And the last one...

31. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Now, get on that grammar train!

And for a fun grammar resource, check out Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips Blog.

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2 comments Annette Fix, common grammar mistakes, grammar tips