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Writing Mistakes that Make You Look Dumb
InsideTech
October 08, 2009
Constipated Clauses
Reporting on the feats and foibles of the Red Sox, a writer for South Coast Today notes: “It goes without saying that these exploits take a tremendous amount of skill.”
If it “goes without saying” then don’t say it. If it doesn’t, in fact, go without saying, then don’t say it does.
“Obviously, the sky is blue.” Putting the “obviously” doesn’t suddenly make the statement insightful.
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jax
about 1 month ago
12 comments
i like using the ellipse...i believe it shows a "pause" better than comma usage.
jax
about 1 month ago
12 comments
interesting read, but i was surprised that they didn't bring up "lose" and "loose". i often see people writing "loose" when they should have used "lose". for example, this computer will sporadically "loose" its connection to the network.
djs
about 1 month ago
2 comments
Mistake #9 is not a mistake. None may be either singular or plural in construction, depending on your mood, location and grammatical taste. This is similar to the use of collective nouns with plural verbs, most common in British English. I would hope that such usage is not viewed as a mistake.
On the other hand, other mistakes listed here are so trivial (yet still common), their use should be an immediate red flag (e.g. 'effect/affect', 'then/than').
Always remember grammar is not a science; many areas are murky and subjective.
iPerk
about 1 month ago
72 comments
I liked the article, but I agree with some of the comments below that these aren't the low-hanging fruit of workplace grammar blunders.
teirvin
about 1 month ago
2 comments
just a side note about an ad on this page when I viewed it...
the "single mom's trick to whiter teeth" is a terrible scam. the products cleanwhites and dazzlebrite will be sent to you and you will be billed without your authorization. the free trial period is not "Free." There are complaints all over the web
ChappersIT
about 1 month ago
4 comments
Another one: the superfluous 'that'. A word people speak and write without purpose, i.e. many say that the word serves no purpose in this sentence. No. I say the word serves no purpose in this sentence. Another: Notice there is no meaning lost by leaving 'that' out of this sentence? Yes. Now, notice that there is no meaning added by putting "that" in this sentence? Yes.
sinistral
about 1 month ago
2 comments
In this case, with the British accent example, affect is not used well. The they discuss is a transitive verb, meaning "To make a show of; to put on a pretense of; to feign; to assume" [He would affect a British Accent]; the noun deals with emotional issues and is mostly obsolete in usage in the US.
dstrukt0naut
about 1 month ago
4 comments
I've always found the usage of affect and effect to be illogical. Effect should be used any time there is a change without emotion. Affect should be used when you are talking about emotional change. "His kiss affected me greatly."
kdkoehler
about 1 month ago
2 comments
Good article...you hit most of my pet peeves...but you missed the ellipse...some folks use it to end every sentence...
be951
about 1 month ago
4 comments
A lot of these are not bad. Some of them, I suspect, very few people would notice. What I see most often even in work-related writing are errors using you're and your or there/their/they're.
isimmons
about 1 month ago
4 comments
This is funny. I use etc. in class assignments when I really don't know what I'm talking about. The sad thing is that instructors let me get away with it because they usually have no clue what I'm talking about anyway. They are usually not very computer savvy so I find that computer related or technical papers are a good way to get an 'A' on an assignment.