In my Scientific Communication in Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources class, we discussed confusing words. We all have several word pairs that stump us--effect vs. affect; who vs. whom; adviser vs. advisor.
I was discussing the lecture with my co-workers over lunch and realized we did not cover near enough! They brought up zingers such as everyone vs. every one; who vs. whom; which vs. that; since vs. because. I realized we did not cover enough ground today!
Rather than post an entire book, and yes, it would be a book, here are a few handy links that may help you study for the test I'll give next Thursday, study for the GSP, or simply help you write.
Grammar Girl--Oh my goodness, I love this site. That Grammar Girl is a genius!
Utah Valley State College--wait, who?? Utah Valley?? Never heard of it! Well now you have, and now you have access to the Online Writing Lab, which provided a fantastic reference for confusing word pairs.
Woolever, K.R. (2008). Writing for the Technical Professions (4th Ed.). New York: Pearson. If you are in my class, you should be very familiar with this book, and pages 485-486 have the information you need about confusing words. If you're in my class and not familiar with the book, I recommend you back away from the computer and run (yes, run) to the book store and purchase one. Now.
Those are my three favorites, but I know there are others out there. If you come across a great Web site, send it my way and I'll post it.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Excessive Capitalization
Other than the word towards (and we'll talk about this in another blog) excessive capitalization is my PET PEEVE. I often see others capitalize words that should not be capitalized; most of the time it is in Power Point slides, and it really annoys me. The same capitalization rules apply to Power Point as they would in any other document.
For review, words at the beginning of a sentence and proper nouns should be capitalized. However, I will be the first to tell you the English language is MESSED UP, and there are tons of exceptions.
With that said, here are some capitalization mistakes I see frequently.
Agriculture--We love our industry, and in our hearts it's a proper noun, but according to the laws of English, agriculture is not a proper noun and should not be capitalized.
EXAMPLES:
Ag Teacher
Ag class
I would like to go into an Agricultural field.
Ag college
--Those are all incorrect!
EXCEPTIONS: United States Department of Agriculture
College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack
Agricultural Education 2300
EXPLANATION:
When the entire name is used, government, university, and academic departments should be capitalized. However, if a shortened version of the name is used, agriculture should not be capitalized (i.e. agriculture department).
If agriculture is part of someone's title, then capitalize it, but we would leave it lower case if we were simply talking about the agriculture secretary.
The last example from the previous paragraph is very confusing and leads me to my next entry.
Course names, building names and room numbers--Yet another example of the messed up English language. If you are casually talking about a course, building or room, it should be lower case, but if you use the entire, proper name, it should be capitalized.
EXAMPLES:
Ag class--nope, that's incorrect. However, if we said Ag Education 2300, it's correct.
Ag building--wrong again. If we say Agricultural Education Building, correctomundo.
The Classroom upstairs--it's not specific. "We will meet in Room 206" is correct.
EXCEPTIONS:
If the class or building you reference is named after a language or country, it is always capitalized.
English building
German class
French lessons
EXPLANATION:
As long as it is part of a specific title, you can capitalize academic subjects, buildings, rooms, even chapters.
All of these are correct:
I have an Ag Communications 2302 exam.
The exam will be in Room 206.
I enrolled in Math 2300 for Summer I.
We are supposed to read Chapter 14.
I have an ag communications test tomorrow.
Our club will meet in the upstairs classroom.
Did you read the assigned chapter?
I am taking summer courses.
Titles--According to the AP Stylebook "Capitalize formal titles when used immediately before a name. Lowercase formal titles when used alone or in constructions that set them off from a name by commas."
EXAMPLES:
All these are incorrect:
The President of our FFA chapter called the meeting to order.
The Professor is mean.
The Senator from Texas voted for the bill.
The General led the troops.
EXCEPTION:
The President of the United States.
If you are casually writing about the president, lower case is fine.
CORRECT EXAMPLES:
President Jones called the chapter meeting together.
Professor Irlbeck is mean.
Sen. Cornyn voted for the bill.
General Powell retired.
The chapter president attended.
Erica Irlbeck is the meanest professor on campus.
Cornyn and 30 other senators voted for the bill.
There are many other examples, but the ones above are the mistakes I see most frequently.
For review, words at the beginning of a sentence and proper nouns should be capitalized. However, I will be the first to tell you the English language is MESSED UP, and there are tons of exceptions.
With that said, here are some capitalization mistakes I see frequently.
Agriculture--We love our industry, and in our hearts it's a proper noun, but according to the laws of English, agriculture is not a proper noun and should not be capitalized.
EXAMPLES:
Ag Teacher
Ag class
I would like to go into an Agricultural field.
Ag college
--Those are all incorrect!
EXCEPTIONS: United States Department of Agriculture
College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack
Agricultural Education 2300
EXPLANATION:
When the entire name is used, government, university, and academic departments should be capitalized. However, if a shortened version of the name is used, agriculture should not be capitalized (i.e. agriculture department).
If agriculture is part of someone's title, then capitalize it, but we would leave it lower case if we were simply talking about the agriculture secretary.
The last example from the previous paragraph is very confusing and leads me to my next entry.
Course names, building names and room numbers--Yet another example of the messed up English language. If you are casually talking about a course, building or room, it should be lower case, but if you use the entire, proper name, it should be capitalized.
EXAMPLES:
Ag class--nope, that's incorrect. However, if we said Ag Education 2300, it's correct.
Ag building--wrong again. If we say Agricultural Education Building, correctomundo.
The Classroom upstairs--it's not specific. "We will meet in Room 206" is correct.
EXCEPTIONS:
If the class or building you reference is named after a language or country, it is always capitalized.
English building
German class
French lessons
EXPLANATION:
As long as it is part of a specific title, you can capitalize academic subjects, buildings, rooms, even chapters.
All of these are correct:
I have an Ag Communications 2302 exam.
The exam will be in Room 206.
I enrolled in Math 2300 for Summer I.
We are supposed to read Chapter 14.
I have an ag communications test tomorrow.
Our club will meet in the upstairs classroom.
Did you read the assigned chapter?
I am taking summer courses.
Titles--According to the AP Stylebook "Capitalize formal titles when used immediately before a name. Lowercase formal titles when used alone or in constructions that set them off from a name by commas."
EXAMPLES:
All these are incorrect:
The President of our FFA chapter called the meeting to order.
The Professor is mean.
The Senator from Texas voted for the bill.
The General led the troops.
EXCEPTION:
The President of the United States.
If you are casually writing about the president, lower case is fine.
CORRECT EXAMPLES:
President Jones called the chapter meeting together.
Professor Irlbeck is mean.
Sen. Cornyn voted for the bill.
General Powell retired.
The chapter president attended.
Erica Irlbeck is the meanest professor on campus.
Cornyn and 30 other senators voted for the bill.
There are many other examples, but the ones above are the mistakes I see most frequently.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Troublesome Spelling Words
I consider myself a good writer--not outstanding, not bad, but somewhere in the middle. I am a fan of the AP Stylebook, and I think the answer to any writing question can be found there.
With that said, there are several words that stump me EVERY time. My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Hosey, had all sorts of helpful hints to help us remember hard stuff. For example: seven times nine went up a tree, when they came down, they were 63. Another example: Trenton went shopping; he bought a New Jersey (a.k.a. Trenton is the state capitol of New Jersey)
I still remember every silly trick Mrs. Hosey taught us, so I'll try to pass my own helpful spelling hints on to you. Here is my list, along with some handy hints to help all of us remember:
With that said, there are several words that stump me EVERY time. My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Hosey, had all sorts of helpful hints to help us remember hard stuff. For example: seven times nine went up a tree, when they came down, they were 63. Another example: Trenton went shopping; he bought a New Jersey (a.k.a. Trenton is the state capitol of New Jersey)
I still remember every silly trick Mrs. Hosey taught us, so I'll try to pass my own helpful spelling hints on to you. Here is my list, along with some handy hints to help all of us remember:
- Apologize--I always try to put two p's in the word. HELPFUL HINT: A polo is appropriate dress to make a formal apology.
- Apprehensive--This one is just plain hard. HELPFUL HINT: I am apprehensive about the credit app.
- Awkward--It's spelled awkwardly too! HELPFUL HINT: When you GAWK, it makes the other person feel awkward.
- Courtesy--This looks like curtsy, like the bow I would give when I finally get to meet the Queen of England. HELPFUL HINT: Divide it up--COURT ESY.
- Definitely--I definitely always misspell this word. HELPFUL HINT: I definitely think you should memorize this one, because I can't think of anything clever.
- Judgment--Does anyone else want to put an e in here?? It just doesn't look right! HELPFUL HINT: The JUDGE will chop off your Ear if you put an extra E in judgment.
- Likelihood--There seems to be too many vowels in one place on this one. HELPFUL HINT: my initials, ELI are in the middle of this word.
- Noticeable--HELPFUL HINT: notice + able. Two separate words put together.
- Prairie--I always miss that extra i in the middle of the word. HELPFUL HINT: There is a lot of AIR on the prairie.
- Wednesday--This one isn't so hard for me because Mrs. Hosey taught me this HELPFUL HINT: We will be WED on WED-NES-DAY. Separating the word makes it easier to spell.
- Weird--Mrs. Hosey taught us "I before e, except after c." Do you see a c in weird?? No! That is just plain weird!! HELPFUL HINT: Weird is weird--it doesn't follow the rule.
That's all for today. Special credit to Mrs. Hosey. I hope she knows how much I remember from her class.
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