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

[creidylad.livejournal.com]

You should add it. Figuring out what constitutes an object of a preposition is not that tough.

Natalie Harper of esteemed memory (for whom my second child received her fourth name) taught us all to say these things properly or face the mighty wrath of her long-suffering gaze, the slow shake of her head and the wag of her finger. If we could learn it all when distracted by the heedy New England autumns and springs, surely your students can learn it all in the middle of Minnesota!

She was also very strict about using the word 'hopefully' as an adjective instead of using it to replace the words, 'I hope'. "Hopefully, he went to the mailbox."

[zinzinzinnia.livejournal.com]

"Hopefully" (in the sense of 'hopefully, it will be sunny tomorrow') has passed into idiom.

You have to choose your battles.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

It's like normalcy (which isn't a word. The word is normality!). Stupid modern usage.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Oh, please. "Normalcy" is a word; the OED traces its use to the mid-1850s. I'll bet that every day you use many words that are newer to the English language.

In fact, the OED's first citation of "normality" in English writing is only eight (8!) years older than the first citations of "normalcy."

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

I stand (sit) corrected! I was misinformed. ;)

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

That's the problem. I mean--please believe me!--no disrespect to you as a teacher, but this is exactly how these mistaken ideas about "correct" usage get spread around: instructors (at various levels, grade school through college) who have no expertise in the subject pass on their pet rules and language prejudices to their students, who then pass them on to others, saying "I was taught ..."

If I had my druthers, no one would ever be allowed to instruct others in correct language usage without, at a minimum, consulting the OED on every point. I am so tired of people railing about "misusages" that have been standard in English--written English by educated writers--for hundreds of years.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know. Can you come up with other examples? And simply because something appears in the OED doesn't necessarily demonstrate "usage." My whole point was that normalcy, which is an odd word certainly, is commonly used and that I don't pick fights with common usage.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

No, I meant the problem was that you had been misinformed. Someone told you that "normalcy" isn't a word, or at best is, in your phrasing, "stupid modern usage." Yet it's only a few years newer than "normality," which someone apparently told you was a perfectly fine word.