Eleven with acronyms and 12. I cannot stop using the apostrophe when making an acronym plural. Ending with a preposition is the informal way of speaking I do that bleeds into my writing. Trying to write without ending sentences with a preposition makes it feel way too formal.
I'm surprised the subjunctive isn't on this list. That is the mistake I see made way more often than correctly used.
The only infractions in the list that I am 100% sure I have committed even after a second edit, are numbers 13 and 19. I can honestly say the rest of them seem almost silly to me.
Dangling Participles tend to be easy to spot most of the time, often manifesting in confusion over what was being said. The example is good, but perhaps too obvious. Sometimes the dangling participle isn't so obvious as someone cooking themselves.
Comma Splices are a simple mistake sometimes, and I think they can be rather difficult to spot. I find it can be more difficult to spot than a missing Oxford comma. I usually use the second method for correction when I do actually find them.
Another error I make which is not listed is sometimes I use a semicolon when it's not really appropriate. I blame the fact that I read Don Quixote as a kid (fabulous book, by the way), and Cervantes' excessive use of the punctuation mark, at least in the translation I owned, distorted my own use of it ... permanently.
Dante's Divine Comedy also permanently left its mark on my writing ... not necessarily for the better, haha!!
They did miss one, in the vein of 'could of' ... "chomping at the bit" vs the correct "champing at the bit." Spend any amount of time around horse owners ... you'll learn. And they'll make sure you never, ever forget it! lol
Michele Hax Ha ha, well language does change. But that one's dopey...making a longer word instead of a simpler one. (Eg,. the transition from inflammable to flammable at least makes sense.)
The incorrect use of the subjunctive mood bothers me the most. It is rather prevalent in music. For example, Gwen Stefanie's song, If I Was a Rich Girl, uses it incorrectly. In comparison, Fiddler on the Roof uses it correctly in the verse, "If I were a rich man."
I didn't even grok the English subjunctive until I learned Spanish in high school. I'm afraid that eventually the subjunctive verb forms will disappear altogether.
Spanish, otoh. You fucking swear using the subjunctive. At that point I realized I really did have to learn it properly, ha ha ...
Michele Hax Alanis Morissette would be using the irony mark wrong quite often.
The SarcMark reminds me of an episode of the Ellen sitcom. Ellen couldn't tell whether her friend were serious or joking. His friend decided that when he is serious, he would lower his eyebrows and when he is joking, he would raise his eyebrows.
Chris Pollard Prior to the song being released, I actually did not understand what irony is. I recall being taught it in high school. It was in English which is a subject I am not very strong in and I lacked the interest at the time. It wasn't until some English professor publicly criticised the song for the fact that most of the events mentioned in the song are not ironic that I looked into what irony is. It is ironic that a song that is so incorrect about irony led to my understanding of irony.
I disagree somewhat with #12, especially when writing dialog :-P
ReplyDeleteBut of all these, the one I'll flub sometimes is #11 with apostrophes. Included in that should be, for example, "the 80s"
One they don't mention is the sprinkling of commas throughout an otherwise correctly constructed sentence.
i think everybody has trouble with the affect/effect ... otherwise i'm pretty 'on point' with most of the rules.
ReplyDeleteEleven with acronyms and 12. I cannot stop using the apostrophe when making an acronym plural. Ending with a preposition is the informal way of speaking I do that bleeds into my writing. Trying to write without ending sentences with a preposition makes it feel way too formal.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised the subjunctive isn't on this list. That is the mistake I see made way more often than correctly used.
could of really drives me nuts.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure irregardless will never be a valid word. Flammable became one because people seemed to refuse to use the correct word, inflammable.
ReplyDeleteThe only infractions in the list that I am 100% sure I have committed even after a second edit, are numbers 13 and 19. I can honestly say the rest of them seem almost silly to me.
ReplyDeleteDangling Participles tend to be easy to spot most of the time, often manifesting in confusion over what was being said. The example is good, but perhaps too obvious. Sometimes the dangling participle isn't so obvious as someone cooking themselves.
Comma Splices are a simple mistake sometimes, and I think they can be rather difficult to spot. I find it can be more difficult to spot than a missing Oxford comma. I usually use the second method for correction when I do actually find them.
Another error I make which is not listed is sometimes I use a semicolon when it's not really appropriate. I blame the fact that I read Don Quixote as a kid (fabulous book, by the way), and Cervantes' excessive use of the punctuation mark, at least in the translation I owned, distorted my own use of it ... permanently.
Dante's Divine Comedy also permanently left its mark on my writing ... not necessarily for the better, haha!!
Try ... just try, to read this without getting a little lost from time to time ... http://www.online-literature.com/cervantes/don_quixote/5/
ReplyDeleteThey did miss one, in the vein of 'could of' ... "chomping at the bit" vs the correct "champing at the bit." Spend any amount of time around horse owners ... you'll learn. And they'll make sure you never, ever forget it! lol
ReplyDeleteChris Pollard indeed, once you get into colloquialisms, I think the overall number of errors start to rise dramatically.
ReplyDeletetoe the line, tow the line, but there's a lot of stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteI have lose and loose but not because I don't know the difference. All the others seem like no brainer to me.
ReplyDeleteThere is this -
ReplyDeletehuffingtonpost.com - Yes, 'Irregardless' Is a Word | HuffPost
Michele Hax Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say, Gene Chiu? It was banished from my vocabulary a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteI hate commas, semicolons, colons, dashes, dots, morse code, parens, any old thing like that.
I'm a social worker, dammit. It gets pretty technical up in those psychosocial assessments.
I could care less, I mean, I couldn't care less, I mean, I hardly care anymore. ;)
Actually, am shocked the whole "lay, lie, laid" etc didn't make the cut...
ReplyDeleteMichele Hax Ha ha, well language does change. But that one's dopey...making a longer word instead of a simpler one. (Eg,. the transition from inflammable to flammable at least makes sense.)
ReplyDeleteThe incorrect use of the subjunctive mood bothers me the most. It is rather prevalent in music. For example, Gwen Stefanie's song, If I Was a Rich Girl, uses it incorrectly. In comparison, Fiddler on the Roof uses it correctly in the verse, "If I were a rich man."
ReplyDeleteCindy Brown, they finally had to lay (?) down and admit that too many people were still using irregardless. heh
ReplyDeleteI didn't even grok the English subjunctive until I learned Spanish in high school. I'm afraid that eventually the subjunctive verb forms will disappear altogether.
ReplyDeleteSpanish, otoh. You fucking swear using the subjunctive. At that point I realized I really did have to learn it properly, ha ha ...
Michele Hax The same thing happened with inflammable/flammable.
ReplyDeleteAs long as I know what I'm talking about, who cares about anybody/one else. haha
ReplyDeleteMichele Hax There is a reason people care about anyone else. dictionary.com - Dictionary.com
ReplyDeleteGene Chiu, now I feel guilty. Btw, this is cool.
ReplyDeletementalfloss.com - 13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using
Michele Hax Alanis Morissette would be using the irony mark wrong quite often.
ReplyDeleteThe SarcMark reminds me of an episode of the Ellen sitcom. Ellen couldn't tell whether her friend were serious or joking. His friend decided that when he is serious, he would lower his eyebrows and when he is joking, he would raise his eyebrows.
Gene Chiu I think the irony in Ironic is that the examples of irony in the song are not. :P
ReplyDeleteChris Pollard Prior to the song being released, I actually did not understand what irony is. I recall being taught it in high school. It was in English which is a subject I am not very strong in and I lacked the interest at the time. It wasn't until some English professor publicly criticised the song for the fact that most of the events mentioned in the song are not ironic that I looked into what irony is. It is ironic that a song that is so incorrect about irony led to my understanding of irony.
ReplyDeleteyoutube.com - "Weird Al" Yankovic - Word Crimes
ReplyDeleteGene Chiu Referencing Weird Al
ReplyDeletewill ALWAYS win bonus points.
https://plus.google.com/photos/...
Michael Ireland I'll raise you Joyce's Ulysses o.O
ReplyDeleteCindy Brown Whew, yeah ... that be crazysauce. I never really got into that one, nor Homer's Iliad or Odyssey. One day. Maybe.
ReplyDeleteI recommend Homer before tackling Joyce. Many excellent translators of Homer's work; I haven't found one yet for Joyce ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe Dubliners. ;)
ReplyDelete