Write and Wrong

The only style manual you'll ever need

Marthy Johnson

• Publisher: Publication Consultants
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN: 9781594331947
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Writing & Presentation Skills

English is a blend of passion and logic, except in spelling, which has nothing to do with either. Language is a set of conventions, some of them sensible, and some accidental. Usage is not so much a question of what is right or wrong as of what is or is not accepted. Accepted by whom? By the experts and the committees, and the advisers and the authorities, the stylists, and the grammarists, bless them, who write dictionaries, style guides, textbooks, handbooks, and grammar books in seventy-five volumes. They set limits; decide who has wiggle room and where. Academic writing operates in solitary confinement. Technical writing is medium-security; business writing a work-release effort. Next to them, creative writing is a resort. The only writing manual most writers will ever want -- or need!

USAGE

TERRIBLE TWOS

And Other Mysteries

In the bibliography you will find mediators in the eternal battle between confusing pairs, such as lay and lie, convince and persuade, sex and gender, and trying trios, such as probable, possible, and potential. Here are some of the most frequent stumpers:

ABILITY/CAPACITY

As far as a distinction is made at all, ability can be acquired, capacity cannot. I may have a capacity for learning to play the piano, i.e., it is not outside the range of my possibilities. I may even have a talent for it. However, until I have put in a lot of hours, I will not have the ability to play. Capacity, then, refers to potential, and ability to know-how.

ABOVE/OVER

In the sense of higher than these two have lost many of their former distinctions. A lamp placed over a table is directly above it, whereas one above a table may be off to the side. Over, referring to a stationary location, implies covering (a roof over their heads, darkness over the city). It may also imply movement: A plane flying over a house suggests it is going somewhere and passing over a house. A plane flying above a house would worry me. It is circling.

ACUITY/ACUMEN

These two are nearly interchangeable and mean shrewdness, sharpness, or keenness of perception. Acumen is most often used for depth and sharpness of perception in practical areas.

Her business acumen resulted in ownership of a thriving company.

ADAPT/ADOPT

Adapt (to)	= accommodate, change, adjust, modify, acclimatize
	We adapt our dress to the weather. She adapts her writing style to the audience.
Adopt	= assume, take as your own, embrace, acquire, select, support, accept
	We adopt a fashion, an accent, a country. He adopted a new way of life.

ADMISSION/ADMITTANCE

Admission is the act, process, or state of being admitted; the word is used in a nonphysical sense.

Admittance, on the other hand, refers to the act or permission to physically enter.

ADMITTANCE

See Admission.

ADVERSE/AVERSE

Adverse	= opposed, hostile, contrary
Averse	= reluctant, loath, disinclined

The devil's advocate takes an adverse position.

I am averse to reading morning newspapers; mayhem and murder is* too much on an empty stomach.

NOTE: Mayhem and murder is seen here as a unit, hence the single verb. The verb form are may also be used.

ADVICE/ADVISE

Advice is a noun, advise a verb.

Advise	= to give counsel, instruct, teach, share an opinion, tell
Advice	= guidance, counsel, wisdom, knowledge

I advised him to drop the phony accent (counseled, encouraged, directed).

He ignored my advice (rejected my guidance).

AFFECT/EFFECT

See VICIOUS VERBS/Verbs.

AFFIRM/CONFIRM/CORROBORATE

All of these support the truth or validity of something, but the emphases differ.

Affirm = Declare as true, state with assurance, avow, assert as valid. Affirm contains an element of belief, conviction.

He affirmed his support for the party platform.

If confirm were used here, it would mean verify.

Confirm = Verify truth of something, ratify, remove doubt by statement or fact, make definite.

Confirm is factual.

The crash of this plane confirms my belief that the design is faulty.

Corroborate = Strengthen what is already established

The witness corroborated previous testimony.

AFRICAN AMERICAN/BLACK/NEGRO/COLORED

Usage has changed with the social and political climate. African American is the preferred term at present. Black is used, and acceptance varies. Negro and especially colored are not acceptable, but are considered by most people to be derogatory.

AGGRAVATE/IRRITATE

The use of aggravate for irritate goes back a long way. But it is wrong. You aggravate a condition, a circumstance, a thing, and thereby irritate a person.

Aggravate	= make worse, intensify
Irritate	= annoy, vex, irk, provoke

Moving the victim may aggravate his injury.

Hecklers irritated the speaker.

ALIBI/EXCUSE

Alibi	= proof of absence
Excuse	= reason, justification, explanation

He had an alibi for the time of the murder: He was in the hospital having surgery.

His excuse for being late was a flat tire.

ALL/NOT ALL

All that glitters is not gold.

This is technically not true, since some of what glitters is gold. However, this one is not going to go away. In your sentences, however, take care where you put the word not. It should stick as closely as possible to the word it belongs to (all).

RIGHT:	WRONG:
Not all students have to take remedial English.	All students do not have to take remedial English.
Not all women like to cook.	All women do not like to ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Absolutes
• Active/Passive Voice
• Agreement
• As/Like
• Audience/Purpose
• Capitalization
• Carryalls (Unity)
• Clarity
• Clichés
• Compounds
• Consonant Doubling
• Cutting
• Dangling Constructions
• Hyphenation
• Inventions
• Jargon & Euphemisms
• Latin Terms
• Lists
• Literary / Linguistic Terms
• Manifesto
• Misfits
• Numbers
• Paragraphs
• Parallelism
• Plurals and Possessives
• Pronouns
• Punctuation
• Redundancy
• Repetition
• Run-on Sentences
• Sexism
• Stacking
• That, Which, Who
• Unity
• Verbs
• Word Choice
• Writing Tips
• Usage
• Bibliography
• Index