I’m a Scripps student and totally feel the same way! I remember the first day in J101 Dr. Hodson drilling into our heads the “toward” instead of “towards” rule, and I cringe now every time I hear the latter used. While Precision Language was going to be the death of me at the time, it has helped me so much in my internships and just daily speech.

Love this post; this is a huge pet peeve of mine, especially when educated people use incorrect grammar. Also would like to add:
- Nauseated: To be affected with nausea.
- Nauseous: To cause someone to be nauseated. So many people use nauseous as an adjective about how they’re feeling, instead of “nauseated.”

Also, I hear many broadcast journalists say things like, “…for him and I” or “…for he and I.” Yikes! “For him and me” is the proper way to say this.

Thank you for a great post…would like to see regular posts on proper grammar!

Thanks for the comments so far. I’m realizing that writers default too often to bad grammar because it sounds more like commonly used language. Maybe if it didn’t sound right to someone they would discover that they in fact had been writing/speaking wrong all along. Small steps…but we have to start somewhere!

Great post! I’m a Scripps grad as well and can totally relate to your role as the “annoying grammar corrector.”

One of my favorite cringe-worthy grammar mistakes (especially prominent on the radio) - “first annual.” An event can’t be described as annual until it’s been held for at least two consecutive years.

Also, I agree with Faye - I’d like to see more posts on proper grammar too!

So close to a perfect post. I see these mistakes every day in the communications I read and the oral presentations I hear, and it makes me cringe. About the only omission is due to, which means caused by but is used in place of because of. People think they sound smarter and use it, incorrectly, 99 percent of the time.

This is outstanding. Short and to the point (that’s a fragment, I know).

Here’s another: one local supermarket chain has the checkout sign “7 items or less.” Nope. It’s “7 items or FEWER.”

Great points, Aaron! I tend to (literally) roll my eyes each time I see or hear over and more than misused. Another error I often see involves the words insure, ensure and assure.

This one always gets me.

With regard to?
In regard to?
In regards to?

Which one is the right one?

My personal pet peeve is “insure” for “ensure.” Drives me crazy! Unless you are doing something to protect your financial liability, you are not insuring anything. Although, sadly, it appears that it is becoming accepted practice to use the two interchangeably.

Don’t you hate when you write a post about grammar and then you read over your post one thousand times to make sure it’s grammatically correct?! Haha. Great post. Thanks for pointing out the distinctions.

Oh! And if you find anything grammatically incorrect with this comment, please, let me know!

Misuse of “which” and “that” are my pet peeves.

Aaron,
I applaud your commitment to clearer writing. As a writing coach who works with PR firms, I encounter these issues often.

Usage and grammar are challenging for all of us. The answer is to be conscientious enough to work at it, consistently looking things up and asking colleagues. That would help us to avoid confusing “insure” and “ensure,” as Kerry pointed out.

Grammar sometimes seems to be a mass of prescriptive rules, but if we did a better job at five principles, a lot of writing would be more polished. If you or anyone would like the five, I can e-mail you two pages that list them, with examples, and tell you how to fix them. Send me an e-mail, Ken@WritingWithClarity.com.

I sometimes cover them in a monthly writing tip, which people can sign up for on my site, http://www.WritingWithClarity.com.

Poor grammar drives me crazy and it gets worse and worse. TV ads are the worst offenders; news papers and on air reporters are right up there with ads. Along with some friends, I have formed the Grammar Patrol. We call or email each other with the worst violations of good grammar. I have been a writer for 4 decades. My favorite reference is the New York Public Library Writer’s Guide to Style and Usage. My favorite books about grammar are “Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies,” and “Woe is I.”

I am known at the San Diego Natural History Museum as the “grammar and punctuation police.” I can get away with it here but my husband has asked me to stop policing him and my sister
(a former teacher) took offense when I corrected her use of pronouns. I’m hearing a lot of people using “I” when then should be using “me,” e.g., The teacher gave an A to him and I. Other irritation: mis-use or no use of hyphens.

Thanks everyone for the great comments and grammar tips. So many of these are great reminders.

John’s post inspired me to take a picture of all signs with bad grammar. We may start posting them here. You’ll also see some more posts on this topic.

Keep the tips coming!

Amen!

My pet peeve = writing in the passive voice.

Thank you for covering a number of common errors. And don’t forget “since” vs. “because.” Since is a time word, not an explanation.

And don’t forget the overuse of the word “actually”!

Can we please complete a sentence without using it?

Another Scripps grad in PR here. My biggest pet peeve, which I see ALL the time, is when people spell the past tense of “to lead” as “lead” instead of “led.” The good thing is that if it’s broadcast, it sounds the same.

Aaron, We need more articles like this one!

I am more frustrated by the voice inflection of today’s speakers and business people. Ever notice how disempowering people become when they end a statement with a question? For example, I joined a webinar with a CEO guest speaker this week. He completed every 2-3 sentences with a lilt in his voice. I quickly lost interest in his otherwise compelling message.

Somebody please stop this inane way of speaking!

Lisa
http://blog.energizegrowth.com

I put a link about this on my Face Book page with the comment that Phil Taggart was the first one to remind me to use the word eager (to do something) not “anxious.” He also taught me the better use “more than” instead of “over” hmmm I see “more than 100 gramatical mistakes!” every time I read a blog…;-D

Love this post! These are all rules that everyone in PR SHOULD know, but often can be overlooked! Thanks for the reminder!

The grammar comments are fun, but I’m surprised no one has shifted to cliches, as in the original post’s reference to “the lion’s share.” In the fable, the lion takes all the food. Therefore, “the lion’s share” means “all,” not “the majority.”

Keep smiling. We’re all fighting similar battles.

I love hangin’ out with other grammar police. We are the only folks who understand and appreciate this talent — everyone else is just annoyed. I once had a CEO who told me I needed to “lower my standards,” because incorrect grammar in our corporate communications bothered me. He said: “No one notices this stuff but you.”

Agree with all of you on the pet peeves with pronouns. “John passed the corn to she and I” is just as annoying as “Her and me ate the corn John gave us.” Or: “John passed the corn to she and myself.” Arrrrghhhhh!

This is largely baloney. Style is not the same as grammar and three of these supposed “grammar rules” are simply suggestions of style that are in no way universally accepted.

“Towards” is a variant of “toward” and carries the exact same meaning and usage. “Each other” and “one another” are also synonymous, and using “over” in the metaphoric sense of denoting a higher value is also in no way a grammatical error.

There are more than two style guides in the English-speaking world and no matter how annoyed you may feel when someone uses words in a different style than you do, it’s an absolute conceit to pretend that they are breaking non-existent language rules when they do so.

Which brings us right back to baloney.

Here’s a tip: “There unquestionably are more rules,” is a terrible, terrible turn of phrase.

Everyone should read the book Eats, Shoots, and Leaves.

Pat, I always trash the phrase “in regard(s) to” and just use “Regarding.”

KP Communications, I feel your pain. I sometimes feel like a fish out of water where grammar is concerned. I’m always amazed when, in a professional office setting, I hear things like, “me and him went to the movie.” It blows my mind.

Aaron, I very much enjoyed this post. Thanks. On a related note, the rampant misuse of the apostrophe makes my blood boil.

This is fine if you’re American. But for proper use of English, in (1) don’t use ‘toward’ OR ‘towards’. Just “heads downtown” is fine.

But then, I’m talking English, not American.

Awesome! Numbers 4 and 5 are two of my personal favorites. I would add the use of “irregardless” (not a word) vs. “regardless” to the list.

Mike Doyle is correct. Towards is perfectly correct, although it happens to be used more in British English. Over/more than is a style issue and either is correct. In fact, AP says over GENERALLY refers to spatial relationships, but it doesn’t say it must.

I’ve looked up both of these in the past year because I believed, as you did, that toward and more than were the only correct way. However, I found that either is correct. Use whatever style you want, and as long as you’re consistent, you’re fine. But don’t have a holier than thou attitude if you’re not technically correct.

I find this post and the comments that follow somewhat disheartening. I’m an OSU Linguistics grad and find language fascinating. I agree that there should be a standard set for professional publications, but I don’t think that most of what many people are saying is wrong speech is actually wrong at all. Who made it “wrong?” And if it communicates a point effectively…isn’t that the point of the dialogue in the first place? Grammar rules should, for the most part, be limited to publications and written text. Speech, well, that’s a completely different story. When you only use proper speech all the time, (which is virtually impossible considering the constant variations in language) think about the way others might perceive you. If you really want to “talk right” then you should probably begin brushing up on the English brought to you by Chaucer: “Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour…”

Great post! I have to admit; I just had to go change a bunch of OVERs to MORE THANs. But glad I learned something new today!