11–20 of 50 posts
Her blog covers English usage and grammar issues in simple, "quick and dirty" tips. So you'll usually get a quick explanation of why something works the way it does, and then get a quick tip explaining how to remember it.
I also bought her book (which is just collected posts from the blog.)
This is similar to when I read about psychological disorders and the like - it seems like I learn about something and start acting it out in some weird way.
Long story short, sometimes I'd rather not read these lists of common errors.
Maybe a list of common errors in English usage would be more useful if it were a manageable list. How about the 20 most common errors in usage. I'd bet (but surely there are some studies on this) that the following would appear near or close to the top of the list: it's for its; there for their; alright for all right; 'the reason is because', for 'the reason is that'; dangling modifiers; missing or unclear pronominal…
Loose vs. lose comes up far too often here. Also: http://www.uta.edu/owl/top20.htm
For a much better look at English grammar, check out Grammar Girl: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ Her blog covers English usage and grammar issues in simple, "quick and dirty" tips. So you'll usually get a quick explanation of why something works the way it does, and then get a quick tip explaining how to remember it. I also bought her book (which is just collected posts from the blog.)
I have found one interesting tip regarding braces, brackets and parantheses. While I use all three of them all the time, she says that brackets and braces are seldom used. Moreover, she asserts that most probably many of readers have never used braces. And she is right. Just shows how different the world seems to her compared to what it seems to me.
It also works if you type something like this: http://phras.in/realize/realise
/shameless plug
Does this happen to anyone? Sometimes, I don't make an error - I didn't know it was an error that existed or that was commen - but upon reading about it, I start making the error. This is similar to when I read about psychological disorders and the like - it seems like I learn about something and start acting it out in some weird way. Long story short, sometimes I'd rather not read these lists of common errors.
Uh?
Maybe a list of common errors in English usage would be more useful if it were a manageable list. How about the 20 most common errors in usage. I'd bet (but surely there are some studies on this) that the following would appear near or close to the top of the list: it's for its; there for their; alright for all right; 'the reason is because', for 'the reason is that'; dangling modifiers; missing or unclear pronominal…
Loose vs. lose comes up far too often here. Also: http://www.uta.edu/owl/top20.htm
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/couple.html
From the outside it seems to be a US, West coast affection.