Forum Moderators: not2easy
In any one of these elements, you are bound to find common mistakes that both novice and experienced writers make.
By starting this thread, I hope to develop a list of common mistakes, traps and pitfalls ALL writers make. This compilation of errors can be used by writers aspiring to pinpoint and eliminate weak spots in their prose.
To start this thread, allow me to list three of my "pet peeves."
#1) Unnecesary use of the word "that."
Examples:
Bad-> "She said that he did not have to go to school today."
Good-> "She said he did not have to go to school today."
When determining if you can eliminate "that" from a sentence, say it outloud without the "that" and if it still makes sense, then you don't need it. I see this one all the time, even in college textbooks. It may not be a "big deal," but it's my biggest pet peeve (for some reason).
#2) Using the same subject or verb in the same or adjacent sentences.
Example: The City Council met Thursday with all members present. The City Council's first item for discussion was the annexation of the Harrison Subdivision. After 10 minutes of deliberation, the City Council approved the formation of committee to research and make recommendations concerning annexing the Harrison Subdivision. The committee will report back to the City Council in four weeks.
Nauseating isn't it? How about substituting city leaders, or just council or councilmembers or town council? Harrison Subdivision is also used twice too close together.
It is unimaginative and makes for feeble prose.
#3) Avoid slang, cliches, colloquialisms and catch phrases. ie, "Show me the money!" - "Ya'll come back now!" "He counted his chickens before they hatched."
This is also unimaginative and makes for weak content.
Those are my 3 to get it started. I have more but will hold back for now as I hope to get some input from others who have their own pet peeves of ain't not no good content.
Thanks,
Zapatista
As was pointed out to me the other day, not all nationalities understand the concept and find usage of the word very confusing.
:)
Pendanticist.
2) Incorrect Spelling. I know Zapatista just said that, but it needs to be said more than once - even WYSIWYG programs have spell checkers.
Excessive use of 'it'.
Sentence fragments. :o
Pendanticist.
So, this is where optimization and good written expression sometimes clash. I'm not suggesting reaching the level of keywork stuffing. Simply, that the temptation to "guild the lily" is always there.
Is "guild the lily" really that awful?
Yep, because it should be "gild" ;)
Gild the lily: to cover it with gold leaf ---> to make needless "improvements".
The original phrase probably came from a poem somewhere.
Be cautious about metaphor and simile: Native English speakers use lots of strange little phrases whose meaning is NOT obvious to someone reading the words literally. This can be a problem when writing for an international audience for whom English is their second language, or third, or more ...
"got a load off his chest"
"a wet blanket"
"carrying coals to Newcastle"
"sour grapes"
I could go on, but the tea is ready.
Sentences such as, "There are to many people in that bus" ... drive me crazy!
Native English speakers use lots of strange little phrases whose meaning is NOT obvious to someone reading the words literally.
And sayings also trip up native speakers. I've patronized religious bookstores that featured bookmarks with sayings by Ben Franklin (a swinging atheist free thinker), specifically,
"God helps those who help themselves."
Or brother! Is that a misunderstanding!
We would like to try and deliver the best products possible.
My first revision would be;
We try to deliver the best products possible.
However, my final revision would be;
We deliver the best products.
One of my biggest pet peeves is the introduction of the contraction of the words 'no' and 'one' to create 'noone'. 'Noone is not a word.
The use of 'your' for 'you're'.
I'm not a prescriptivist but I don't believe that all the rules should be ignored. I don't mind the use of rhetoric if it adds to the copy but the usage has to be considered carefully.
My biggest pet peeve however is the use of the run-on paragraph. A paragraph should never become an entire page nor should a paragraph contain several ideas. For some reason web authors seem to like paragraphs that would best be described as chapters.
Oh, and my number one peeve is improper or non-existent citation of source material!
Amen!
Plagerism. Ugh! That one could be an entire thread on it's own.
Pendanticist.
<edit>Too many people doing research on the web think if they find a website on a specific topic listed in the Top Ten, it must be authoritative. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.</edit>
Buckworks - I plead guilty. Please forgive me. Please! I'll never gild the lily again.
LOL! :)
Pendanticist.
"God helps those who help themselves."Or brother! Is that a misunderstanding!
"Platonic love" - ever read The Symposium? Know anything about Greek culture? They aren't talking about non-sexual relationships...
As for commas, I don't mind them in places where the rules of grammar I know make them optional. Seeing commas every few words in places they clearly don't belong drives me batty, though. It also seems to be a hallmark of what I see as sleazy hard-sell tactics.
A couple of common butcherings:
The common version: The proof is in the pudding.
What? What in the hell is that supposed to mean?
The real quote: The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Make more sense now?
Common Version: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Okay, that one might make sense, but it is still wrong.
The real quote: Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn.
Common Version: Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well.
That one just bothers me because it is wrong and often quoted by people that are trying to impress people with their knowledge of Shakespeare.
The real quote: Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio:
I run into bad quotes all the time, but for some reason most of them escape me at the moment. Maybe some others can fill out the list.
Most of this thred sorta sounds like sour grapes, if, you ask me.
Sour grapes = fermented grapes = wine, the nectar of Gods. ;)
Richard Lowe
Sorry, it's not that simple. The first determination is the audience you are trying to communicate with. Info presented to college graduates should be presented differently than information presented to 6th grade students. Same info, different audience.
You left out the most important part of the equation in your simple rule. Does it communicate effectively?
>>does it communicate? That's the only criteria that matters.
Really? The message doesn't matter at all? Just that the message conveys some meaning to someone? Style doesn't count? Presentation? Audience? Treatment?
I suppose if you write technical manuals that approach would work. Or if you only want to convey simple ideas. What if you want to reach people across different education levels? Different cultures? Different ages?
Your simplistic approach raised more questions for me than it answered.
Does it communicate to whom? What message is the text communicating? How effective is the communication?
What your message communicated to me was that you were in a hurry and you were feeling a bit world-weary at the moment. Was that the intended message? Or did you mean that writing is a simple task, and all we're doing by listing some of our pet peeves is wasting your time?
One of the things I enjoy about humanity is the ability to read beyond the literal and still end up at the heart of the point that is being forwarded.
I guess when reading, I try not to get too hung up on the details.
How many screw ups did I make in this post?
Was my point missed because of those grammatical errors?
Similiar to the extra "that"
Couldn't be a typo because the keys are not even next to each other.
