Ten Common but Easily Corrected Errors

by Junn C. Palmero

Here are some errors that are so common that even otherwise good writers sometimes make them. Check out this list, and if any of these errors seem familiar to you, you might want to start proofreading your articles for them, because they are as easy to correct as they are to make. 1. ALL RIGHT vs. ALRIGHT It is not all right to use "alright." In fact, you might even say it is "alwrong," and that if you make this error you are "alwet." 2. A LOT vs. ALOT vs. ALLOT A lot of people make the mistake of writing alot when they mean a lot. Try not to be one of those people, because "alot" is not a word. There is, however, such a word as "allot," as in this sentence: I will allot you each twenty tickets to sell. 3. ALL TOGETHER vs. ALTOGETHER Which you choose will depend on what you mean: She just wanted to get the group all together on one side of the room to have their picture taken, but her tone of voice was altogether too bossy and self-important, so everyone ignored her. 4. AMOUNT vs. NUMBER Detergent comes in amounts. People come in numbers. Don't talk about a large amount of people, or books, or pencils, or anything else that can be counted. If something is measured rather than counted, then it comes in amounts. There is a large amount of snow on the ground, but there are a large number of trees in the forest.

5. DUE TO Due to is properly used only after a linking verb. ~Correct : Her high fever was due to a strep infection. ~Incorrect : Due to a strep infection, she had a high fever. ~Incorrect: She had a high fever due to a strep infection. 6. EQUALLY AS The phrase equally as is redundant. Use one or the other but not both. ~Margaret and Louise were equally responsible. ~Margaret was as responsible as Louise. ~This rule is as valid as the other. ~These two rules are equally valid. 7. EVERY DAY vs. EVERYDAY Everyday is an adjective, meaning "ordinary" or "commonplace," as in "everyday people" or "everyday occurrence." Every day is an adverbial phrase identifying how often something takes place: You seem to get up on the wrong side of the bed every day. 8. FROM WHENCE vs. WHENCE Whence means "from where." Therefore, from whence is a redundancy, meaning "from from where." ~Correct: Send him back whence he came. ~Incorrect: Send him back from whence he came.

9. IRREGARDLESS vs. REGARDLESS Simply put, irregardless is not a word. It is a blend of regardless and irrespective of. ~Regardless of what he meant to say, the effect of his careless remark was to hurt a child's feelings. 10. PORE OVER vs. POUR OVER When you intently study a book, you pore over it. If you pour over it, you are going to have a soggy book

Son of Ten Common Errors

You will notice that all of these are spelling errors, which means that if you tend to have problems with these words, you can put them on a list and proofread specifically for them, or you can use your spellchecker diligently to hunt them out. Only the last one (its vs. it's) would be overlooked by the spellchecker. 1. SEPARATE vs. SEPERATE The best way to remember the proper spelling of separate is to tell yourself that there is a rat in the word: sep a rat e 2. GRAMMAR vs. GRAMMER In keeping with the motif of using words as mnemonic devices, tell yourself that you would prefer not to MAR your writing with weak GRAMMAR.

3. RECEIVE vs. RECIEVE Although the rule is not 100% applicable, it comes close enough to be genuinely useful: i before e except after c and in words that sound like ay, words like neighbor, sleigh, and weigh. Since receive has a c, it follows the except after c part of the rule. 4. WEIRD vs. WIERD; SEIZE vs. SIEZE; SIEGE vs. SEIGE I put these words together because the first two, weird and seize, are notable exceptions to the i before e rule, while siege, though it follows the rule, tends to get sucked into the wake of the word seize, because they are so similar in appearance. The writer who gets seize right will often get siege wrong, and vice versa. Here is your mnemonic device: Get used to thinking of weird and seize as belonging together, and as both having the right to be spelled weirdly rather than in accordance with the i before e rule. A sentence using the two words will do that for you. Take this one, for example: Seize on these weird spellings to undermine the rule. (Of course, you can always make up your own sentence.) Once you have weird and seize tucked safely into an exclusive little set of two, then you can deal with that wretched word siege, which can lay siege to the fortress where weird and seize resist its weird attempts to seize their exemption from the i before e rule. 5. ITS vs. IT'S Your spellchecker can't help you with this pair, because both are properly spelled words. They just aren't the same word. Its is a personal pronoun. Unlike nouns or other kinds of pronouns, personal pronouns do not use apostrophes to indicate possession. Remember the company its keeps: my, mine . . . our, ours your, yours . . . your, yours his, her, hers, its . . . their, theirs

Notice that there is not an apostrophe in the bunch. We would not write hi's, so we also would not write it's when we need a personal pronoun in the possessive form. Contractions, on the other hand, do require apostrophes, because the apostrophe replaces the omitted letter or letters. When we contract it is to it's, the apostrophe is needed to replace the missing i. ~The squirrel stocked its nest with acorns. ~It's a nest full of acorns. ~Its nest is full of acorns.