Look-Alike, Sound-Alike Errors

Here are a few homophone (sound-alike) and look-alike errors that I've noticed
recently.

The export company was found guilty of flaunting [proudly displaying??] tax laws.
Should be
The export company was found guilty of flouting [willfully disobeying] tax laws.

Acme Services has a full compliment [praise??] of print, finishing, and related services.
Should be
Acme Services has a full complement [array or supply] of print, finishing, and related services.

The nation's strict hierarchy mitigates [softens??] against free expression.
Should be
The nation's strict hierarchy militates [has weight or effect in a conflict] against free expression.

That’s a mute [soundless??] point.
Should be
That’s a moot point.
[Moot (noun) means a group that deliberates. There is a verb “moot,” and it means to bring up for debate.]

Place the butter in the hallowed-out [made holy??] center of the flour.
Should be
Place the butter in the hollowed-out center of the flour.

Your neighbors are leaching [percolating out??] off your wireless Internet connection.
Should be
Your neighbors are leeching [sucking from a host, as a leech does] off your wireless Internet connection.

The therapist tried to illicit [unlawful??] the reasons for the client’s anger.
Should be
The therapist tried to elicit the reasons for the client’s anger.

Verbs: To Make Things Better

Besides cheer, uplift, brighten, encourage, and rekindle, here are a few verbs that convey improvement. Each is derived from the concept in the word or phrase that immediately follows it. Its meaning is then defined and exemplified.

verb - derivation; definitition (example)

allay – subdue; make less intense, relieve (allay fears)
alleviate – lighten; make more bearable (alleviate pain)
assuage, – sweeten; ease, make less intense (assuage loneliness)
extenuate – thin out; lessen seriousness with partial excuses (extenuate guilt)
lighten – lessen weight; remove some pressure (lighten a burden)
mitigate – soften; cause to become less harsh (mitigate punishment)
palliate – cloak; relieve a symptom but not the underlying disorder (to give palliative care)
relieve – raise; free from a burden

The Eight Parts of Speech

Look to the right and you will see a new link: Online Adult Grammar Book. Its title is
Traditional English Grammar: Description and Use, by Donald E. Hardy

This interactive book seems reasonably arranged and appropriately advanced for adults, although the first quiz seems far too advanced.

The book, like most grammars, starts by explaining the eight "parts of speech," which are the functional categories of English words. But the chapter has not eight, but nine sections.

As soon as the author has explained nouns, he digresses to discuss "frames." These are not parts of speech, but the word's neighbors in the sentence. Without knowing a word's frame, you cannot tell its function. Personally, I think it's great that the eight functions are introduced along with the idea of "frame."

This online grammar goes from NOUNS and FRAMES to
PRONOUNS
VERBS
ADJECTIVES
ADVERBS
PREPOSITIONS
CONJUNCTIONS
and
INTERJECTIONS

My problem? The very first quiz question in this book asks readers to identify a pronoun's person, number, and case. Yet at this point, the book has not, as far as I can see, mentioned terms such as second person or accusative.

I am puzzled, but will continue to work through Hardy's book so that I can review it for you more thoroughly. Watch this space, as they say.
Flesch Reading Ease 73.6
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 6.5

Pronunciations I Never Knew

At the back of the Gregg Reference Manual, 9th edition, is an appendix of pronunciation problems. Some of its entries surprised me:

angina - "Medical professionals pronounce this ANN-jinn-uh. Others typically say an-JYE-nuh."
applicable - Gregg says to put the accent on the first syllable: A-plih-kuh-bul.
Celtic - The language is KELL-tick. The Boston team is SELL-tick.
conch - This is a seashell and is pronounced KONK.
corps - We all know that the singular is KAWR. The plural is pronounced KAWRZ but spelled "corps."
data - Gregg's pronounces this word DAY-tuh. Lots of people are going to disagree.
Metairie, city in Louisiana - Accent the first syllable: MET-uh-ree.
Natchitoches, city in Louisiana - Again, accent the first syllable: NACK-kuh-tish.

Well, I could go on. But here's one that isn't in Gregg's and used to trip me up:
Oaxaca, place in Mexico, is pronounced wuh-HAH-kuh.

Vocabulary and Gender

Does English have male words and female words? Sociolinguists say that women in the U.S. know more words for color than do men. Can you define these color words:
scarlet
vermilion
carmine
crimson
puce
viridian
ecru
chartreuse


Probably men are better able to define words relating to sports and military life:
piker
redoubt
tactical
tight end
fourflusher

Another factor in vocabulary is age. My elementary-school friends taught me
words not found (yet) in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary:
crunk
noob
dratchey
emo

E-Feelings

Do not e-mail a potentially emotional message.

That is the advice I got from a corporate manager, and she speaks from experience.

Furthermore, researchers recently discovered how easily, in an e-mail, even mundane remarks can be misinterpreted. College students sent e-mail messages about weather and cafeteria food to friends, and expected misinterpretations of the messages' emotional content only about 22% of the time. Instead, respondents invested the messages with unintended emotional meanings 44% of the time (Kruger & Epley, J Pers & Soc Psych, December 2005).

Emoticons or smilies are outdated. Few of us still use IMHO (in my humble opinion) or FWIW (for what it's worth). But old-fashioned courtesies remain. Perhaps we might bring back the "warm regards" and "thank you so much" of earlier eras. And if the message is emotional, let's avoid e-mail and use telephone or face-to-face contact.

At least, that's my humble opinion.

Verbs

To build a better vocabulary, I concentrate first on learning verbs. Specifically, I move verbs from my passive vocabulary (I understand them) to my active vocabulary (I use them appropriately and readily). Here are a few verbs from my recent reading:

doff Jim doffed his disguise and we saw the real man.
abstain The CEO wanted to protest, but wisely she abstained [or refrained] from speaking in haste.
I would have liked a martini, but that night I was abstaining.
recant Mary once believed in unbridled capitalism, but she has since recanted.
sate It seems that no amount of music can thoroughly sate America's demand.
rebuff Acme offered $15 million, but Standard Widgets rebuffed that offer.
ascribe I know the report came from Brad, but insiders ascribe its recommendations to Brad's deputy, Sara.
engross Numbers engross her; that is why she is pursuing a degree in accounting.
amplify He summarized the report on the phone, but a longer e-mail will amplify that summary.
augment I will augment the evening's menu by bringing a basket of fruit and some French pastry.
expound He announced his plan, and then he expounded it. Could you expound on that observation?

Flesch Readability: 57.3 Flesch Kincaid Grade Level: 8.3

Adjectives: More Perplexing, Most Perplexing

One-syllable adjectives usually form their comparatives by adding –er and superlatives by adding –est. Of course, there are irregular adjectives such as good, better, and best. But wrong, wronger, wrongest?

Three-syllable adjectives usually require “more” and “most.” Examples: transparent, more transparent, most transparent.

But some two-syllable adjectives are written both ways. The Gregg Reference Manual (9th edition, 2001) advises us to avoid some –er and –est forms: “your ear will tell you when.” In other words, we are on our own, and may heaven pity the foreigner.

What do you think of each of these?

1. Activer activest
2. Frugaler frugalest
3. Commoner commonest
4. Simpler simplest
5. Yellower yellowest
6. Purpler purplest
7. Oranger organgest
8. Worthier worthiest
9. Silverer silverest
10. Disturbeder disturbedest

Gasoline for clearly smoother acceleration

You couldn’t ignore this billboard. It loomed over an expressway entrance where it assaulted millions of drivers each week.

First you saw the phrase:
“Gasoline for clearly smoother acceleration”

And in small print, you saw the sentence:
“Only Amoco Ultimate ® is crystal clear.”

What have these advertisers actually promised?

If an idea isn’t in a sentence (that is, with subject and predicate), they haven’t promised you anything. But when advertisers use enticing phrases, you may believe that they have.

So I think that advertising is worth analyzing. Such analysis has been called, by my friend Frank Pope, “forensic grammar.” There is, in fact, a field called "forensic linguistics."

It starts, in my opinion, with recognizing a sentence. That's a skill we should all teach our children--for their own protection.

Flesch Reading Ease: 61.6
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.1

Business Writing and the Ego

Everyone has heard the advice, "Write about what you know." That advice is sound 98% of the time. The exception: when the topic involves you too deeply.

I know a brilliant professor who wrote a query letter to an editor. Like all query letters, it aimed to "sell" the writer's idea for an article. But this idea was "sold" so poorly that I could hardly believe my brilliant friend had written it. Fortunately, he was smart enough to ask for help. Together we polished the letter until it truly showed his brilliance.

Another superb manager built a wonderful staff department. But in describing its services, he understated them over and over. Modesty? Perhaps. Good business? No.

I should not have been surprised. People write their own resumes notoriously poorly. Why? Their own egos seem spread out on the page, and the self-exposure makes them cringe. They often find it cruelly hard to write an effective proposal for a project that will involve them prominently.

In short, sometimes we are not the best people to blow our own horns.

At these times, the writer should seek help. A writing pro can get to know the writer, assess the writer's strengths, and make them shine.

No matter how skillful I am, sometimes I need another's perspective. It's why we have attorneys, coaches, agents--and editors.

Flesch Reading Ease 69.7 Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 5.8

Vivid Verbs

Perhaps you already practice correct grammar and punctuation. You want to escalate your verbal skills. May I suggest you enlarge your active vocabulary of verbs?

We all tend to re-use the words that we read or used recently; thus our vocabulary narrows.

If we multiply nouns and adjectives, we risk confusing readers. (For example, if I mention a “system,” I might be tempted to call it a “network.”) Multiplying adjectives may be useful. After all, my writing benefits if I know the nuances that separate thrifty, economical, frugal, sparing, and cheap. But each adjective entails a noun, and noun-heavy writing burdens the reader. (I explain noun-heavy burdens in my Clear Sentence workshop.)

I myself try to enrich my vocabulary by adding verbs. I don’t add them randomly. Rather, in what I must read anyway, I notice verbs I would not readily use. I jot them down. By learning them in context, I absorb their usage and nuances.
Recent examples:

Employee Ann Dann violated the policy that prohibits X. Manager Tania Jones reprimanded Ms. Dann. Ms. Dann redeemed herself: later that same day, she resolved a customer’s problem creatively, and the customer commended her to Ms. Jones.

The most precise verb is the best:
Not great: Joe Bloggs will focus on late arrival policy.
Better: Joe Bloggs will specify how the new policy will penalize employees who arrive late.

Words that Impress

Perhaps you want a vocabulary that will impress academics, such as SAT essay-scorers. May I suggest that you purchase the Jeeves and Wooster series?

These British comedies, produced by Granada for ITV, are marketed in the US by A&E. Each boxed set costs about $25 used and offers five hours of entertainment. Much of the dialogue showcases the speech of the polymath butler, Mr. Jeeves. Repeat after Jeeves, and you will practice impeccable usage of impecunious, mitigate, and Thespian.

Education was never more fun.
Flesch Reading Ease: 59.2 Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.6

We Confuse Young Writers

This year, for the first time, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) takers will write an essay. These students are being advised to write ornately: write as much as possible and use long words. Actually, the advisers acknowledge that such ornate writing generally erodes quality. But it will earn high scores from the hurried graders.

This advice sends a message to our children. “We value writing, but not enough to score the essays carefully. We may have taught you the standards for careful writing. But ignore them when they would require our careful thinking."

What if we advised students to answer math questions this way? Yes, your math teacher taught you how to solve this problem. But the graders will approve answers that are easy to grade, so compromise quality to save them time.

“We don’t have time to judge your writing carefully. But remember, writing is very important.”

Flesch Reading Ease: 70.0 Fesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 6.3

The Road to Good Writing

Below I've distilled what I know from 40+ years as a writer, mostly in business.

1: Warm up your writing skills. Summarize ten big ideas, each in a single sentence of less than 30 words. See if your mother understands them.

2: You are writing to whom? Know what your readers want and speak their language. Learn the verbs they value and loathe.

3: Writing is thinking. Ask questions. Try out your ideas on yourself and on others.

4: Just write. Until you complete a first draft, do not obsess about details.

For example, misspelling is rarely deadly unless it accompanies rambling, vague sentences. But some errors are deadly and must be edited out: long paragraphs, sentence fragments and run-ons, puzzling clumps of nouns, and ambiguous or missing "referents" (aka old information). The deadliest source of error? Writing sentences that you *hope* will impress readers.

5: Use the four editing algorithms:
1. Give each chunk a main-idea sentence.
2. Put old information in each sentence’s beginning, new in the end.
3. Put all first-time actions into active verbs (the DAD Rule).
4. Design (format) each page to please readers.

That’s it. Those are the basics. From here on, we explore the fine points.

Flesch Reading Ease 75. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 4.8