Wednesday Writing Tips: Naughty and Nice Lists

Santa isn't the only one who keeps lists of the naughty and the nice. Editors do it too (or at least, good editors do). But editor lists are about words, not children. The words or phrases that we most commonly spot as incorrect, so know we need to check for in every book. And each editor's list is different, has not only generally common errors but those words that the editor knows are her weak points or blind spots. Our copy editors are invaluable in helping with this. ("OMG, the copy editor flagged this same thing twenty-seven times in the last three books from me. I better put this on MY LIST.")

So here's a present from Santa for all you nice writers, and for you naughty ones who want to be nice--a list of some common errors you should look for in your writing. Do a Find in your document for each of these.

"could care less" - Think about it. What you mean is "couldn't care less".

"criteria is" - 'Criteria' is plural. If you just have one, say "criterion is"; if there are several, "criteria are".

"hone in" - Hone means to sharpen; you hone a blade or hone a skill. If you are pinpointing or locating something, you "home in" on it.

irregardless - This is a double negative, and means the opposite of what you want. Regardless means without regard, so irregardless means "without without regard"--in other words, with regard. So say "Regardless of the consequences" if you mean doing something without caring about the consequences.

kudo - There's no such word. Kudos means approval or praise; it is singular.

lightning/lightening - That bolt of electricity in the sky is 'lightning'. If you are making something lighter (in weight or color), you are 'lightening' it.

"off of" - Get rid of the 'of', just use 'off'. Go jump off a bridge.

"person that" - (Or substitute any category of people.) People are always 'who'; 'that' refers to a thing. Let's not argue about animals; do it whichever way your editor will allow.

"reason is because" - Redundant. Use "reason is", or if introducing a noun clause you may use "reason is that".

"road to hoe" - No, please don't dig up the road with a sharp farm instrument. That would be a difficult "row to hoe".

"those kind"/"these kind" - 'Those' and 'these' are plural and would modify plural nouns. So say either "those kinds" or "this kind".

"try and (action)" - This should be "try to" do whatever. 'And' is a conjunction used to join two actions or things. "Try and call the grammar police" means you are going to do two different actions: you are going to "try" something (what?) and you are going to "call the grammar police". What you mean is that you are going to attempt to call the grammar police - "try to call". Hey, we're right here!

undoubtably - No such word. This is a misspelling of 'undoubtedly'.

"would of" - This is based on sloppy mispronunciation. The term is "would have".

Happy holidays. Hope you enjoyed this gift list.

Wednesday Writing Tips: Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags identify who is saying what in a conversation between characters and keep the reader from getting lost or confused. But some writers generate confusion by using incorrect punctuation or capitalization with their dialogue tags. Here are three dialogue issues to check for in your manuscript.

(1)  The dialogue tag is a continuation of the sentence and is separated from the dialogue by a comma, exclamation point or question mark, but not by a period. Unless the word following the punctuation is a proper name, it is lowercase. Here are examples of dialogue tag punctuation:

Incorrect: “Nancy, you are so naughty.” Her friend said. [One of the most common dialogue format errors editors see.]
Correct: “Nancy, you are so naughty,” her friend said.
Correct: “Why are you so naughty, Nancy?” her friend asked.
Correct: “Nancy,” her friend said, “you are so naughty.”

(2)  If a character talks for more than one paragraph (without interruption of dialogue tags), each paragraph of his or her speech starts with opening quotes, but there are no close quotes until the character is finished speaking.

(3)  Do not use two dialogue tags for one continuous piece of dialogue. Either remove one dialogue tag or split the dialogue into two parts.

Incorrect:  With a heavy heart, he said, “Had I known, I would never have eaten that last cookie. I didn’t know your blood sugar would drop and you would need a snack,” he whispered sheepishly.

Correct:  With a heavy heart, he said, “Had I known, I would never have eaten that last cookie.” He whispered sheepishly, “I didn’t know your blood sugar would drop and you would need a snack.”
or
Correct: With a heavy heart, he whispered sheepishly, "Had I known, I would never have eaten that last cookie. I didn’t know your blood sugar would drop and you would need a snack."

 

Wednesday Writing Tips: Common Errors

EC editors keep lists of the most common errors, things they regularly correct in the books they work on. Here are some items that hit the top of editor checklists, we encourage you to put them on your own proofreading checklist.

Homonyms:

aid / aide
aisle / isle
baited / bated
borne / born
course / coarse
discreet / discrete
duffle / duffel
embed / imbed
enquire / inquire
gray [US] / grey [UK]
hoard / horde
lightning / lightening
passed / past
phase / faze
rack / wrack
reign / rule
'til / till
vice / vise
who's / whose
you're / your

Acronyms--Common ones that should not have periods:

CIA
FBI
MRI
OMG
SUV
WTF

And of interest to romance authors:
HEA  [happily ever after]
ms  [manuscript]
TSTL  [too stupid to live]
WIP  [work in progress]

Is there a homonym you know you regularly have trouble with?

Wednesday Writing Tips: Comprise / Compose

I see "comprised" used by British and Australian authors, but rarely by Americans. Is that because American writers almost always use it incorrectly?

There is no such phrase as "comprised of"! Never put 'of' with 'comprise'. Write that on your palm in ink, please.

"The whole comprises the parts; the whole is composed of the parts."
(Or: The whole comprises the parts; the parts compose the whole.)

Either of these is correct:
The alphabet comprises twenty-six letters.
The alphabet is composed of twenty-six letters.


A couple of tests to see if you've got the usage correct:
~  'comprises' = 'is composed of'
~  you can substitute 'includes' for 'comprises'.

Wednesday Writing Tips: Weak Words

By copy editor Victoria Reese

 

He contemplated the miniscule chamber, its prosaic tile at odds with the neo-modernistic appurtenances.

 

Excuse me? I honestly had a writer once who used words like this in the novel he was writing. The above sentence is a description of a bathroom in an old farmhouse. Although I consider myself well-read and familiar with the English language, I had trouble getting through his story. This is an example of PhD language. Words that are too full of themselves or using language that sends the reader running for the dictionary.

 

If your reader has to stop to figure out what you’re saying, you’ve lost him or her. The use of simple words does not always mean dull or uninteresting. For instance, walk may be dull; stroll is simple but descriptive and interesting; perambulate is verbose. Consider the following examples:

 

Dull?                   Interesting           Over the Top

cart                      carriage               conveyance

wordy                   glib                     loquacious

name                    moniker              sobriquet

 

Hopefully you see the pattern here. Use colorful, interesting language but don’t require your reader to check the dictionary every other sentence.

 

When we write, we tend to use the same favorite words over and over. Like meatloaf or a well-remembered meal from childhood, they’re comfortable. We know them—know how to spell them and use them. Ah, but does that mean they’re good?

 

Not necessarily. Just like a favorite dessert, too much of anything is not good. Some words that seem perfectly fine are actually weak words that give your writing less impact than it should have.

 

For instance, Shakespeare didn’t call Katharina a mean woman. He called her a shrew. When a cat is chasing a mouse, it doesn’t jump suddenly. It pounces. A teenage boy wolfs his food. The words shrew, pounce and wolf are stronger than the lukewarm phrases they replace. Search your manuscript for overused or lukewarm nouns and verbs and see if you can’t find a better way to say it with stronger words.

 

 

Wednesday Writing Tips: Cause and Effect

by editor Beverly Horne

One of the writer's main goals is to keep the reader's eyes on the page, engrossed in the story. If the reader has to stop and parse what you’ve just written to figure out what’s going on, they’ve just been sucked out of the scene. A common error is to show an effect before the cause. For example:

“What are you doing?” She ran out of his path. Looking up, she saw the silver blade of his shovel swinging forward.

Here, the heroine is engaging in an action, but the timing is out of order. Our brains have to figure out what happened, go back, and piece the events together. That’s bad. The correct order should be:

Looking up, she saw the silver blade of his shovel swinging forward. She ran out of his path. “What are you doing?”

(Or have her talk while running. Only the TSTL heroine would ask the question first before getting out of the way of that deadly shovel aimed at her head.)

This makes sense. We see the action. The character reacts. Then she has the chance to make a retort.

Wednesday Writing Tips: Conversation is Not Dialogue

by Raelene Gorlinsky

Conversation is the way people really talk, their exact words. It may be realistic, but it is repetitive, slow, often hard to follow, often boring to others.

Dialogue is what you should put in your book - snappy, interesting, conveying important information or defining the character, moving the story along.

From You Can Write a Novel by Geoffrey Bocca: "Of all aspects of novel writing, none plays a greater con job on the reader than dialogue. The art of dialogue lies in leading the reader to think that the characters are speaking as they do in everyday life, when they are doing nothing of the sort."

Important tip: Read your dialogue aloud. Does it flow, or does it halt the movement of the story?

Dialogue must contribute to telling the story. So if your characters are talking in your head, be sure to convert their "conversation" to "dialogue".

Wednesday Writing Tips: Who versus That

by Martha Punches

Good Morning, Writing Class.

Let’s be honest here. How many times have you been reading along, thoroughly enjoying your leisure reading time, and gotten jerked out of your concentration on the hot sex story/murderer being revealed/cliffhanger ending because the author has used THAT instead of WHO? Am I the only one who hates this? Nah, I can’t be.

WHO. When you have to use either Who or That, think person. Who, and this is no pun intended, is this word or phrase referring to? If your sentence has a person mentioned, you should use WHO, not THAT.

Example:

All the usual suspects were gathered in the parlor. Only Greeves, the butler that found the poor strangled Headmaster, was missing.

No no no no no! Okay, this is a personal pet peeve of mine but it grates on my nerves to read it that way.

Read the sentences again but put in who for that.

All the usual suspects were gathered in the parlor. Only Greeves, the butler who found the poor strangled Headmaster, was missing.

Now doesn’t that sound much better? Just agree with me and it will cause a whole lot less friction! I won’t be forced to issue a complaint about the whole matter.

According to the Quick and Dirty Tips Grammar Girl site (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx), the Who versus That issue has gray areas. Many are convinced you must use Who with people and you use That with an object. Others would swear you have to use That with people. However, there is no hard and fast rule. Consistency is the key. I absolutely love her quote. “To me, using that when you are talking about a person makes them seem less than human. I always think of my friend who would only refer to his new stepmother as the woman that married my father. He was clearly trying to indicate his animosity and you wouldn't want to do that accidentally.” So, unless you are writing hard core science fiction and want to refer to your characters as objects or things, not humns or human-like, use Who!

There may not be a ‘Use It Or Else’ rule in all the grammar books, but be nice. Use Who with people and That with objects. Make me happy.

Memory tip: That = Things

And that concludes our session about Who versus That. Our next lesson will be on the usage of That versus Which.

Class dismissed.

Dinna-Canna That Dialogue

by Raelene Gorlinsky

You’ve all heard of the dreaded “dinna-canna” book? One where the author doggedly reproduces the uninterpretable Scottish accent in dialogue of some secondary character throughout the whole story. The reader is completely distracted from the book by trying to translate. “What the hell is he saying? Is it important to the story?”

It happens in more than just Highlands historicals. Any story where a character might have an accent seems to seduce authors into the worst excesses. Editors hate it, readers hate it. Hey, yes, it’s great to give us a little taste to help flesh out that character – but after a few sentences, CUT IT OUT.

The July 2012 issue of Romance Writers Report has a very good article by Kinsey Holley on this issue. Basically, what she says is “more dialect, less accent”, and she defines it as “accent is the way words are pronounced (i.e., the way they sound), while dialect is vocabulary and sentence structure.” In other words, use the appropriate regional words and phrases that will attach a locality or nationality to your character—without all the accents. Slang works the same way—it can indicate young versus old, city versus country, and a lot more.

Do you carry your groceries in a sack or a bag? Drink soda or pop? Eat a sub or a hoagie? Those words place you. That strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street, which is owned by the city but the homeowner is responsible for maintaining? It’s got a lot of names; I grew up referring to it as the curb strip. But here in EC-HQ land, it is the “devil strip”—look that up and you’ll find out the phrase is unique to the Akron, Ohio, area. Have your character say that, and Ohio readers will love you as an author and believe in your Akronian character. All parts of the US have entertaining regional sayings that you can slip in where appropriate. Just make sure someone unfamiliar with the phrase will still be able to grasp the meaning from the context. It’s an effective way to “show” rather than “tell” about your character.

So use words themselves, rather than the way the words “sound”, to illustrate a character’s nationality or regionality or social level. Spare your readers’ mental ears, avoid excess accents!

Wednesday Writing Tips: Lay/Lie

Writing tips from the EC editors

Lay/Lie

This is the most common verb tense error.

From Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions by Harry Shaw:
'Lay' means "to place" and is a transitive verb requiring an object.
     Present tense (lay): Is it better to lay a baby on its stomach or on its back?
     Past tense (laid): She laid the baby gently in the crib.
     Past participle (laid): She had laid the baby there dozens of times before.

'Lie' means "to recline", is intransitive, and takes no object.
     Present tense (lie): My dog loves to lie on my bed.
     Past tense (lay): The man lay where he fell in the street.
     Past participles (lain): He has lain there all night.

Wednesday Writing Tips: Misplaced Modifiers

Writing tips from the EC editors

Misplaced/Dangling Modifiers

Participial phrases that are modifying the wrong noun, often at the beginning of the sentence. These are confusing to the reader, and often unintentionally comical.

“After training for more than a year, the event was canceled.”

This says that the event trained for more than a year.

“Standing out in the snow, his hands were cold.”
This says that his hands were standing out in the snow. (So where was the rest of him?)

Wednesday Writing Tips: Head Hopping

Writing tips from EC editors

Head Hopping

If the text indicates a character’s feelings or internal thoughts, that is the POV character. Avoid changing POV too frequently. It is a common practice to include a blank line when POV switches, to help the reader.

Example of really baaaad head hopping:

“We could play poker.” Darla smiled at Rick, hoping he’d say yes. She wasn’t ready to say goodnight just yet.  [Darla’s POV]

Rick dragged a hand over his jaw and nodded slowly. The devil in him wanted to suggest a small adaptation of the game. One involving the removal of clothes.  [Rick’s POV]

Darla didn’t miss the wicked sparkle in Rick’s gaze. Her skin prickled with anticipation. “I’ll get the cards.”  [Darla’s POV]

“Super.” Rick watched the sway of Darla’s hips as she sauntered to the kitchen.  [Rick’s POV]

Wednesday Writing Tips: Remove Redundancy

Writing tips from the EC editors

Redundant Words

Redundancy: needless repetition; being superfluous and unneeded.

Chop out the superfluous words clogging up your prose and annoying readers.

• shrugged his shoulders; nodded his head; blinked/squinted his eyes  [What else would he have shrugged, nodded or blinked?]
• pursed her lips together [You can't purse them apart.]
• rose up  [You can't rise down, so the 'up' is redundant.]
• "the reason is because"  [Remove the "because", or better yet delete the whole phrase and just state the reason.]
• thought to herself [Who else would she be thinking to, her pet fish or the dust bunnies?]
• "the fact is that"  [Just say the fact, don't say that you're going to say it.]
• she waved her hand  [Try simply "she waved", unless she is waving something besides her hand.]
• bald-headed man  [The reader assumes a bald man is lacking hair on his head.]
• breathing in and out  [Can you breathe up and down? Forward and backward? It's enough to just breathe.]

Wednesday Writing Tips: Trim It

Writing tips from EC editors.

Unnecessary or Misused Words
Some suggestions on words to search for and eliminate to tighten up your writing.

• Began: Sometimes it is correct, when describing the start of a long or multipart action. But often it is unnecessary: “She began to open the door. He began to walk across the room.” It could be just: “She opened the door. He walked across the room.” Characters in your story should do things, not begin to do them.
• Felt: “When he kissed her, she felt her breasts tingle.” Try to be more directly active: “When he kissed her, her breasts tingled.”
• In order to: It is usually just as clear to say merely “to”.
• Of: It’s often unnecessary. “Inside her” reads as easily as “Inside of her”, “off him” is as descriptive as “off of him”.
• Only or Just: It should come before the word it modifies.

          Wrong: The book just costs $7.99.
            Correct: The book costs just $7.99.
          Wrong: She only had enough money to buy one gallon of gas.
            Correct: She had only enough money to buy one gallon of gas.

• Was: There are lots of legitimate uses for it, but often a stronger verb can be used. “Barry was shaking his head.” Try “Barry shook his head.” “Her heart was beating painfully” could be “Her heart beat painfully.”
• If/Then: A good rule of thumb is this:
       Wrong: If the sentence flows without using the word then, then don’t use it.
  Correct: If the sentence flows without using the word then, don’t use it.

Wednesday Writing Tips: All / Al

Writing tips from the EC editors

All / Al

All together:  Adverb. Used in reference to a group whose members acted or were acted upon collectively, and when "all" and "together" could be separated by other words; all at the same time.
Altogether:  Adverb. With all included or counted; entirely, completely, utterly; on the whole.

All ready: Adjective. Ready in every way.
Already:  Adjective.  Sooner than expected; previously, prior to a specified or implied time.

All right:  Adjective: Satisfactory or in satisfactory condition; in good health. Adverb: In a satifactory way; yes; without a doubt.
Alright: Adverb. Nonstandard: There is no such word as "alright" in correct English. At most and in appropriate situations, "alright" or "alrighty" might be used in slangy dialogue.

Naming Your Novel

Coming up with a good, catchy title for your book is always difficult. Here's some advice from NPR:

How To Name Your First Novel

If Your First Novel Will Be A Busted Romance

[ANY OF THE SEVEN DWARFS]: A Love Story

If Your First Novel Will Be A Harrowing Historical Account

The [A COLOR] [REPEAT THAT COLOR] [A FLOWER]s Of [A CITY IN EUROPE]

If Your First Novel Will Be A Withering Teenage Quasi-Memoir

How I Flunked [YOUR WORST ACADEMIC SUBJECT] But Passed [THE FIRST MUSICIAN YOU SAW IN CONCERT]

If Your First Novel Will Be A Workplace Satire

At Least They Left Us The [A PIECE OF OFFICE MACHINERY]

If Your First Novel Will Be A Quirky Woman's Story From Someone Else's Point Of View

[A CHILD-CARE-RELATED TRANSITIVE VERB]ing [THE NAME OF YOUR PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER]

If Your First Novel Will Be A Quirky Man's Story From His Own Point Of View

[THE FIRST NAME OF YOUR MATERNAL GRANDFATHER] Reads The Works Of [CLASSIC AUTHOR]

If Your First Novel Will Be A Miserable Story Of One Person's Suffering

My [A FRAGILE OBJECT] Is [A WORD THAT MEANS "BROKEN"]

If Your First Novel Will Be Self-Consciously Ironic And Self-Congratulatory

[A COMIC-BOOK SOUND EFFECT WORD] Goes [A NEIGHBORHOOD IN BROOKLYN]

If Your First Novel Takes Place In Gorgeous Locations

The [ANY COUNTRY] [ANY COMMON SOCIAL EVENT] Chronicles

If Your First Novel Is Intended To Launch A Giant Moneymaking Franchise

Everything Starts With ["1" OR "A"]

When Grammar Elements Go Out Drinking

I love this! Maybe this will help you understand when your editor marks "comma splice" or "passive". Dangling modifiers are a particular pet peeve of mine.

From  http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/

Jenny sent this along from a FaceBook post by Jeff Blackmer--


A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave.
A question mark walks into a bar?
Two quotation marks "walk into" a bar.
A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to drink.
The bar was walked into by the passive voice.
Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They drink. They leave.

Fudging the Facts

by Raelene Gorlinsky

So, you need to have some profession for a character in your story--but you're not an expert on whatever. The September 2011 issue of Romance Writers Report (from RWA) has an article by Courtney Milan, "Five Ways to Fudge Legal Details". The author focuses on legal details, but her advice is good for handling any profession or job in your novel if you are not an expert in that field. This blog post is a combination of suggestions from that article and my own advice.

Her first and most important advice, which we know authors will ignore, is that if you have no experience with the legal profression, do not write lawyers; if you must write lawyers, avoid talking about the character's legal practice. I say the same thing applies to cops, chefs or chiropractors.

If you do have a character in a profession in which you are not experienced, you absolutely should have someone--several someones--who is in that profession read your book and point out the errors. Law and law enforcement are especially complex, as there are so many types, plus laws vary by location (state, city, federal). So get several experts, but make sure they are the right variety--if you write an FBI agent, don't expect a small-town cop to be able to give you the insider scoop on that job. And it can be very helpful to have consultants and beta reviewers who teach--someone from the police or FBI academy, a doctor who actually teaches at med school, the director of a beautician college, whatever applies.

Ms. Milan suggests, "Have your characters choose not to consult lawyers." There can be many reasons why your heroine feels that seeking legal advice would be too expensive or time-consuming or bring more trouble, why your hero doesn't want to involve the police and would rather investigate himself, or why your heroine doesn't trust doctors so decides to treat her symptoms with "natural" cures. That way you can avoid having to provide a realistic and true representation of that profession.

The last piece of advice: "Have your characters delegate". Not only is it easy to get the details wrong, but often those details are boring or are unnecessary for your story. Is the cop a central character, or can all the crime investigation details occur off-screen? Does the reader need to know the details of meal preparation in a restaurant kitchen, or just that the food was poisoned? We probably don't need to see the doctor's office or the medical procedures, we just need the results and how that affects the characters.

If you have something that must be handled by a lawyer, have your character delegate the matter to a lawyer. "You take care of the details," he said in a commanding voice. "Call me when it's done."
Sometimes it really is that simple. [...] delegation means you have no details to get wrong, and no readers to bore.

If you present details in your story, they must be factually correct. But there are ways to avoid the details, fudge the facts, when they aren't critical to the story's flow.

Fact or Fiction?

by Raelene Gorlinsky

Authors sometimes get confused about our insistence on “factual accuracy” in our stories, while we are also agreeing with them that this is fiction. Are these conflicting requirements, are editors talking out of both sides of their mouths? No. There are two primary parts or elements of a romance story, and they have different expectations and requirements.

The relationship—romantic/sexual/emotional—is the FICTION part. People read romance and erotic romance for jolts of emotion and sexual titillation. Readers know that what is depicted in this element of the story is not in any way a match for real-life relationships. Uh, a guy who can get it up five times a night, every night? Men who instinctively know what a woman is thinking and exactly the right thing to say or do to meet her emotional needs? People who recognize their mate within minutes and are irrevocably in love, talking about commitment for life? Now, c’mon. In reality, you’d give that relationship/marriage about a zilch chance of lasting. And those uber-alpha heroes that we swoon over in books? We all know if we met a real guy like that, we’d probably kill him within days—or have him arrested for stalking, abuse, kidnapping… But in a romance story, we happily buy into the relationship and HEA that would be unbelievable in real life. We know that it is fiction, but it satisfies an emotional need for us, so we are willing to play along.

But then there is the story itself—the setting, background, plot actions, historical and geographical details, the science/legal/medical/law enforcement information. That is the FACT in the story, that is what must be real and accurate and true-to-life. (Assuming the story isn't fantasy or alternate reality, of course.) Otherwise, readers think very negatively of the author (and by extension, the publishing company), and are likely to speak up about it. You can’t have zippers in ancient Egyptian clothing, trains or the Underground in Regency London, sites on a hunting rifle in the 18th century, turkey and corn at a meal in medieval Europe. You can’t cross over the border from Canada to Mexico. If your hero suffers a serious gunshot wound, it’s going to take months of recovery and rehabilitation. Tests based on crime-scene evidence or DNA takes weeks to months to process, not a few hours. If you have cops, lawyers, or medical personnel in your story, you had better either be in that profession yourself or have researched the hell out of it and have every detail and character action right and justifiable. Beyond facts, people’s actions and reactions have to make sense, they have to be what could “really happen”, not something that any reader would say “No one would ever do that!” And don’t think readers won’t recognize the errors. Lots of them are in the professions or places you depict. And everyone else has seen it on TV. Yes, CSI is all wrong, it’s fiction, don’t copy from that for your story. But other court, crime and history shows have taught people how things really work and they will spot the “I can’t suspend disbelief enough” inaccuracies in your story.

So yes, we—as both editors and readers—expect that you as author will stick to the facts when writing fiction.

So, what unfactual “facts” have driven you crazy in a romance novel? All those examples I gave above are things I’ve actually seen in submissions or published books.

Crazy Confusibles

Yes, alas, the online world does seem to decrease people's skills in word usage, spelling, punctuation, grammar. There are seldom proofreaders for all those blogs, or even for the articles in online newspapers and such.

8 Words the Internet Loves to Confuse With Other Words
by Christina H, Aug. 30, 2011
http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-words-internet-loves-to-confuse-with-other-words/

As the author of this article says, "there are still a lot of other rogue (not rouge) words out there mixing with their homophonic or lookalike cousins and wreaking (not reeking) havoc on news articles, blogs, and forums everywhere." She illustrates word misuse with hysterical headlines and quotes from online sources, and with wildly amusing pictures. Do go read the full article. But make a note of these words in your personal proofing list.

1. Bear/Bare - A large, furry carnivore - naked. As the article author says, "I would never dream of insulting you by explaining the difference between bare and bear. Third graders know this. Nevertheless, people mix them up all the damn time."

2. Tack/Tact - Tack has several unrelated meanings: a change of direction, a pin, or the saddle and all that stuff you put on a horse. Tact is a kind or socially acceptable way of talking or acting so as to avoid offending others.

3. Hanger/Hangar - A hanger is something you hang things on. A hangar is where you keep aircraft.

4. Principal/Principle - Oh year, I see this error all the time in lots of places. The principal is the head of your school or the main person in some group. A principle is a basic belief about what's right and good. We would like every principal to have principles.

5. Per Se/Per Say - I've never actually seen this error, but according to the author of the blog article, it is rampant online. There isn't such a word or phrase as "per say", it's just a mispelling of per se.

6. Epitaph/Epithet - I see this misused/misspelled all the time, and it cracks me up. An epitaph is what they carve on your gravestone; an epithet is a term used to characterize something, often meant in an insulting or offensive way. Let's hope your epitaph is not an epithet.

7. Wary/Weary - When you are weary, you're tired; when you are wary, you are cautious and concerned ('ware' like in 'beware').

8. Regimen/Regiment - A regiment is a military unit; a regimen is a routine or a planned health schedule. So you don't have an exercise or diet regiment (although the soldiers would certainly be in good shape, if so), it's a regimen.