poetryrepairshop 06.01:008
Top 10 Common English Goofs by Web Authors
KEMPTON SMITH
In reviewing and browsing web sites over the years, I have compiled a list of the most common
misuses of English by web authors. Here they are in Letterman (reverse) order.
10. Who, which or that?
"Who" (or "whom") refers to persons. "Which" refers to animals or things,
never to persons. "That" can refer to either persons or things.
Examples:
The girl who was hungry.
The dog that wagged its tail.
The software which I wrote.
9. Anyone vs any one
"Anyone" means "any person," not necessarily any specific person.
It could refer to multiple people simultaneously. As two words,
"any one" refers to a single person.
Examples:
Anyone can download my software.
But used only by any one user at a time.
8. Commonly misspelled words
All right, Dependable, Independent, Recommend, Responsible, Separate
JH-a key to success here is to proofread after running spell check. Sound-
alike words and right spelling/wrong word are caught by proofreading.
7. Don't put punctuation at the end of a URL
While not technically an English grammatical error, don't put a period or
anything immediately after a URL reference. Doing so will usually
invalidate the URL. You might call this an internet grammatical rule.
Example:
Notice the lack of a period in the following sentence.
My URL is http://article-promotion.blogspot.com
JH-another way to accomplish this is by setting the actual URL off with brackets
example:
PoetryRepairShop ( http://www.poetryrepairs.com ) is a site for poetry.
PLEASE NOTE place blank spaces before and after the ( and ).
6. Software not softwares
"Software" can be singular or plural. Never use "softwares."
5. Do the quotes go after or before the period?
Put quotes after a period or comma. Put quotes before a colon.
Put quotes after a question mark unless the entire sentence
is a question. This is a US English standard. British English usage can differ.
Examples:
He asked, "Are you hungry?"
She replied, "Yes, I am hungry."
Did she say, "Yes"?
4. There, their, or they're
"There" is used in two ways. It can specify a place.
It can also be used as an expletive or empty word to start a sentence.
"Their" is used as a possessive form of "they".
"They're" is short for "they are."
Examples:
I live there, not here.
There are nine planets in the solar system.
The two boys raced their bikes.
They're both tired after walking up the stairs.
3. Powerful
Too many developers describe their software as, "XXX Software is a powerful, easy-to-use, ... ."
I searched download.com and found 2149 descriptions or titles of software containing the word
"powerful." Powerful has many meanings, most referring to how effectively something is performed,
as in muscular. A car with 450 horsepower is clearly more powerful than one with only
200 horsepower. But what is powerful software? If you mean feature-rich (like Adobe Photoshop),
then say so. If your software does only one thing, but it does it completely or thoroughly
(like CounterSpy), then say so. But please, no more powerful software.
2. Site or sight
A "site" is a place.
"Sight" refers to your sense of vision.
Examples:
A web site is a place on the internet
that you visit with your browser.
A beautiful sunset is a marvellous sight.
JH-see my comment at #8, above
And, finally, the most common English blunder by web authors is:
1. Its or It's
Use "it's" only when it means "it is."
Unless you can replace "it's" with "it is," use "its." Never use "its'."
JH- IT IS as a contraction (one sound but two words in some English
coccurances is 'Tis ('Tis the season to be jolly') But American English
delete the second to last letter as in don't (do not)
Examples:
It's raining today.
The dog wagged its tail.
Conclusion:
English is very difficult for persons whose native language is not English. It is also
difficult for many English-speaking authors. Unfortunately, most of the common
grammatical errors will not be caught by a spell checker, so you have to manually
check your writing for them.
An excellent reference is the short and timeless book, The Elements of Style,
by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. A free online version of this book is available
( http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html ).
I hope that web authors can use this article to recognize and correct some
of the most common grammatical blunders ffound on the internet.
Copyright 2006, all rights reserved by KEMPTON SMITH
whose opinions may differ from those of the PoetryRepairShop owner, staff, and writers |
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