No one can recognize our relentless misuse of the English language quite like an editor.
Misplace a modifier, and your editor will (hopefully) let you know.
She listed her personal favorite (least favorite?)
mistakes onTwitter, and then her followers chimed in with more gems.
From Laura
Enormity means something really bad, not something really big.
Men and women in almost all circumstances should be people.
The world is over-gendered enough as it is.
Famous is a word you almost never need.
If a person or event is known to your reader, you dont need to tell them its famous.
Avoid so and so believes because you dont know what they believe, only what they say.
From her followers
Penultimate means second to last, not way beyond ultimate.
Putting The fact that before something is never necessary.
Just to does the same job.
The use of I when the object pronoun me should be used.
He took Jean and I to the store.
The trick to knowing whats right?
Take out the other person in the sentence.
He took I to the store just doesnt sound right.
The paper is titled XYZ.
My dog was a good girl and entitled to a cookie.
Trying to eliminate actually from my vocabulary, mostly speaking vocabulary.
And the reason why is… is redundant.
Just say, and the reason is…
Unique means one of a kind, it is absolute and there are no degrees of uniqueness.
Very unique, more unique, most unique etc., are all meaningless.
The other word I so often see misused is reticent.
It is NOT a synonym for reluctant.
It means tight-lipped, or of few words.
I find the word different is often unnecessary12 different people…
Nondescript.
Describe it, damn it.
The tickets cost over $10?
No, they costmore than$10.
Of course, we have to be somewhat flexible; language evolves over time.
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