The Death List

[lollardfish]

In seventh and eighth grade, my English teacher was Mrs. Venable. She had a list of mistakes called the "Death List," and if you made any of them in your assignment you got, at best, a 59 (an F). In honor of me using effect instead of affect in a syllabus draft, I have decided to re-institute the Death List for all non-formal writing assignments for my students (things graded pass/fail. If they make the mistake, it's fail).

All of them are things that spellcheckers do not catch, and that I see CONSTANTLY in student writing. They must be things that remain valid in modern usage (i.e. First person singular and plural /future/ should be "shall" instead of "will." But that ship has sailed. Similarly, quote is a verb and quotation is a noun, but, quote is now also a noun, damnit!)

I am looking for death list submissions. Here are mine so far (will be updated as I develop them).

On the list:

Your/You're
Their/There/They're
It's/Its
Affect/Effect
Principle/Principal
Ensure/Insure
Who's/Whose
Wear/Where
Led/Lead
Lose/Loose
To/Too

Comments

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

I can't do such a list on grade assignments. But I can, and will, try it for pass/fail assignments with my survey class. We'll see how it goes.

And yeah. That's why first-person is on the 'maybe' list. Otherwise I shall just have to rant about it. I do like circling every first person, or every passive voice, in a paper with a sharpie. It drives the point home.

[hunnythistle.livejournal.com]

Passive voice seems to be the standard for much of science writing. As is a fair amount of the aforementioned "bet hedging". This may be because these stylistic tools help foster the illusion of an objective observer merely recording facts, while simultaneously acknowledging that the conclusions drawn from these facts may be inaccurate or incomplete. Using first person draws an audience's attention to the observer's role in the process, something that one often wishes to avoid in science writing.

Of course, since the written word is a form of communication, what really matters is if the content is conveyed correctly (according to the wishes of the writer); style is a tool used to fine tune this communication. Knowing when to use which of these stylistic tools can be a tricky thing to master. Rather than a list of "do's and don'ts", perhaps a guide that indicates when it is appropriate to use these methods to enhance meaning and clarity would be in order.

(Disclaimer: No active, first persons were harmed in the making of this post.)