OT: It's easy to get it right when you write.

[JRRRJ]

OK Zakalex, since you didn't like my opening sentence, how about this one.....A person is judged by how they speak and how they write.

Well, no.

People are judged by how they...

A person is judged by how <insert your favorite singular pronoun denoting a generic human being here>...

 

[Zorro]

I just thought of another one that always gets my nanny-goat. "Learning curve", when what is actually meant is "learning process". A "learning curve" refers specifically to the changing ratio of output (in skill/knowledge) to the input of time (and maybe effort) spent learning. The curve is most usually assumed to start with a higher ratio, and then flatten out as the first, easy lessons evolve into learning the intricacies of the subject. In other words, improvement is at first rapid and then becomes less so.

 

[mhshuskies]

Before the real season begins, a few pointers on words that seem to be troublesome.

Let's start with nettlesome singular/plural issues:

• One freshman, two or more freshmen (and freshman class).
• One Husky, two or more Huskies.

Next, some often misspelled words: supersede (no "c"), minuscule, judgment, commitment (but committed), separate., and precede (but proceed).

Get out your dictionary: accept/except, lose/loose, there/their/they're, resign/re-sign,recreation/re-creation, and eager (hot to trot)/anxious (antsy).

Last, the most troublesome word(s) of all: its/it's. Some cling to the mistaken belief that you gotta have an apostrophe (') in there to denote possession. WRONG! Possession is indicated by its (NO apostrophe), whereas the apostrophe -- it's -- serves to shorten it is by using the apostrophe to pinch hit for the "i" in "is."

It's called a contraction and its purpose is to make for more peppy prose.

Enough already! Good luck!

The ground rules have been laid down!