Difference between revisions of "Common Writing Mistakes"

Revision as of 00:30, 3 April 2008

Introduction

Everyone has read articles, papers or instructions littered with errors which can be either humourous or frustrating. With technical writing, you don't want either of these scenarios. Your writing should be clear and concise because the goal of what you are writing is to explain a topic. Having the errors in your writing appear either humourous or frustrating to the reader is the last thing you want the reader to experience. The reader should be able to clearly understand the concepts of what is being explained to them.

The best way to make sure the reader understands what has been written is to get rid of all the common mistakes in our writing. Some of the common errors are hard to catch because of the word's spelling or pronunciation. Lets take a look at some of these errors so that they can be fixed. Many of us are guilty of committing these errors, so lets try and reduce them.

List of Common Errors

It can't be stressed enough: if you are guilty of these mistakes often use the search function in your word processor to find these words to double check your usage of them. When in doubt, try using another word. A thesaurus is good for looking up similar meaning words.

Improper Usages

• a and an
  • It is a wonder monkey. (place before consonant/consonant sound)
  • There is an elephant with the monkey. (place before vowel/vowel sound)
• ain't
  • • Ain't ain't a word because ain't ain't in the dictionary. (Even if it IS, your not using it!)
• a lot and alot
  • There is no such word as alot.
• 'assure, ensure, and insure
  • • The monkey has assured me he won't escape his cage. (promise)
    • Please ensure the monkey does not escape his cage. (make certain)
    • I need to insure my monkey. (insurance)
• effect, and affect
• flammable, inflammable, and non-flammable
  • Flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. Something that burns easily. Usually the prefix 'in' in front of a word would imply the opposite. But NOT in this case!
  • Non-flammable is the opposite of Flammable and inflammable.
• it's and its
  • It's a baboon, not a monkey. (contration of it is)
  • That belongs with the baboon and its cage. (possessive)
• principal and principle
  • He believed in the principle of justice for all. (basic truths)
  • No, the principal is not a monkey. (all other uses)
• there, their, and they're
  • The monkey is over there by the tree. (location)
  • That is their monkey. (possessive)
  • They're going to get a monkey as a pet. (contraction of they are)
• to, too, and two
  • I am going to the store to buy a monkey.
  • There are too many monkeys here.
  • Two is the number 2.

External References

• Large list of errors
• textbook