Common Writing Mistakes
Contents
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.
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.
Word Phrases
Avoid using obscure technical terms or buzz words. When using technical terms, make sure that they are clearly defined in your document. Using terms that the audience may not know will only lead to feelings that the document is unnecessarily wordy. Reading academic papers is often difficult for this reason.
The application of the creme to the epidermis .... The creme goes on the skin...
As for buzz words; nothing says you're B.S.ing like buzz words.
...example here...
Tenses
Improper Usages
Here are a few of the more commonly misused words. See here for a much larger list of errors.
- a and an
- It is a 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 in the dictionary [1], you're 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
- The use of monkeys in these examples will remain in effect till I think of something better.(use, result, or achieve)
- People were affected by the smell of the monkeys. (influence)
- 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.
