{"id":134,"date":"2017-07-20T16:29:47","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T16:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/chapter\/commonly-misused-terms-and-phrases\/"},"modified":"2017-07-20T16:29:47","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T16:29:47","slug":"commonly-misused-terms-and-phrases","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/chapter\/commonly-misused-terms-and-phrases\/","title":{"raw":"Commonly Misused Terms and Phrases","rendered":"Commonly Misused Terms and Phrases"},"content":{"raw":"<blockquote><div>When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, \u201cDid you sleep good?\u201d I said, \u201cNo, I made a few mistakes.\u201d\n\n\u2014Steven Wright<\/div><\/blockquote>\nEveryone struggles at one time or another with finding the right word to use.\u00a0We've all sent out that email only to realize we typed <em>there<\/em> when we should have said\u00a0<em>their<\/em>. How many times have you found yourself puzzling over the distinction between <em>affect<\/em>\u00a0and <em>effect <\/em>or <em>lay<\/em> and\u00a0<em>lie<\/em>? You can also find billboards, road signs, ads, and newspapers with usage errors such as these boldly printed for all to see:\n<div>\n<ul><li>\u201cMan Alright After Crocodile Attack\u201d (<em>Alright<\/em>\u00a0should be <em>All Right<\/em>)<\/li>\n \t<li>\u201cThis Line Ten Items or Less\u201d (<em>Less<\/em> should be <em>Fewer<\/em>)<\/li>\n \t<li>\u201cAuction at This Sight: One Week\u201d (<em>Sight<\/em> should be <em>Site<\/em>)<\/li>\n \t<li>\u201cViolent Storm Effects Thousands\u201d (<em>Effects<\/em> should be <em>Affects<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\nPerhaps there is little need here to preach about the value of understanding how to correctly use words. Quite simply, in formal writing, conventions have been established to aid us in choosing the best term for the circumstances, and you must make it your business to learn the rules regarding the trickiest and most misused terms.\n\n<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/textimgs\/Developmental+Reading+and+Writing\/CommonlyMisusedTerms.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">This PDF contains a list of several commonly confused words<\/a>\u2014as well as how to tell which word you should use.\n\nYou can also dig up style handbooks with recommendations on using tricky terminology within your discipline. For instance, <em>Geowriting: A Guide to Writing, Editing, and Printing in Earth Science<\/em>, by Robert Bates explains terms commonly used in the field; medical students can turn to <em>The Aspen Guide to Effective Health Care Correspondence<\/em> or <em>Writing, Speaking, and Communication Skills for Health Professionals<\/em>.\n\n<em>The Chicago Manual of Style<\/em>\u00a0answers almost every conceivable style question\u2014it is essentially a bible for book publishers.\u00a0Never hesitate to look up a term for its proper usage if you are uncertain\u2014there is a lot to be said for being correct.\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>On the Web<\/h3>\nFor a searchable and comprehensive list of commonly misused words and phrases and some practice quizzes, visit these sites:\n<ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsu.edu\/~brians\/errors\/errors.html#errors\" target=\"_blank\">Common errors in English usage page from Washington State University<\/a><\/li>\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/grammar.ccc.commnet.edu\/grammar\/notorious.htm\" target=\"_blank\">\"Notorious Confusables\" page from Capital Community College<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>","rendered":"<blockquote>\n<div>When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, \u201cDid you sleep good?\u201d I said, \u201cNo, I made a few mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Steven Wright<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Everyone struggles at one time or another with finding the right word to use.\u00a0We&#8217;ve all sent out that email only to realize we typed <em>there<\/em> when we should have said\u00a0<em>their<\/em>. How many times have you found yourself puzzling over the distinction between <em>affect<\/em>\u00a0and <em>effect <\/em>or <em>lay<\/em> and\u00a0<em>lie<\/em>? You can also find billboards, road signs, ads, and newspapers with usage errors such as these boldly printed for all to see:<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cMan Alright After Crocodile Attack\u201d (<em>Alright<\/em>\u00a0should be <em>All Right<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThis Line Ten Items or Less\u201d (<em>Less<\/em> should be <em>Fewer<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cAuction at This Sight: One Week\u201d (<em>Sight<\/em> should be <em>Site<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cViolent Storm Effects Thousands\u201d (<em>Effects<\/em> should be <em>Affects<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Perhaps there is little need here to preach about the value of understanding how to correctly use words. Quite simply, in formal writing, conventions have been established to aid us in choosing the best term for the circumstances, and you must make it your business to learn the rules regarding the trickiest and most misused terms.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/textimgs\/Developmental+Reading+and+Writing\/CommonlyMisusedTerms.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">This PDF contains a list of several commonly confused words<\/a>\u2014as well as how to tell which word you should use.<\/p>\n<p>You can also dig up style handbooks with recommendations on using tricky terminology within your discipline. For instance, <em>Geowriting: A Guide to Writing, Editing, and Printing in Earth Science<\/em>, by Robert Bates explains terms commonly used in the field; medical students can turn to <em>The Aspen Guide to Effective Health Care Correspondence<\/em> or <em>Writing, Speaking, and Communication Skills for Health Professionals<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Chicago Manual of Style<\/em>\u00a0answers almost every conceivable style question\u2014it is essentially a bible for book publishers.\u00a0Never hesitate to look up a term for its proper usage if you are uncertain\u2014there is a lot to be said for being correct.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>On the Web<\/h3>\n<p>For a searchable and comprehensive list of commonly misused words and phrases and some practice quizzes, visit these sites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsu.edu\/~brians\/errors\/errors.html#errors\" target=\"_blank\">Common errors in English usage page from Washington State University<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/grammar.ccc.commnet.edu\/grammar\/notorious.htm\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Notorious Confusables&#8221; page from Capital Community College<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-134\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Style For Students Online. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Joe Schall. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The Pennsylvania State University. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.e-education.psu.edu\/styleforstudents\/\">https:\/\/www.e-education.psu.edu\/styleforstudents\/<\/a>. <strong>Project<\/strong>: Penn State&#039;s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences&#039; OER Initiative. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":19,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Style For Students Online\",\"author\":\"Joe Schall\",\"organization\":\"The Pennsylvania State University\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.e-education.psu.edu\/styleforstudents\/\",\"project\":\"Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences' OER Initiative\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-134","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":132,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/134\/revisions"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/132"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/134\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}