Transition Times: This week, Louise Holden looks at common mistakes.
We love creativity, and we would hate to stifle yours by insisting that you conform to all the rules. The problem with breaking grammar rules, however, is that it can leave readers confused. As Lynne Truss points out in her book Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a misplaced comma turns the grazing panda of the title into a cold-blooded restaurant killer.
Other common mistakes simply give your writing the mark of an amateur. If you are writing a Serious piece on Ethics in Politics and keep misusing capitals, as I just have, your piece ends up reading like a chapter from The House at Pooh Corner. In general, use capitals only for proper nouns - the names of people, places and organisations.
Other simple errors can rob your writing of credibility, too. You may pepper your e-mails and text messages with exclamation marks and emoticons, but don't let them creep into your journalism unless you want your article to look as if it was written by a child!!!:-)
The apostrophe is the Paris Hilton of punctuation. Overexposed and rarely appropriate, this slip of the keyboard turns up everywhere, performing functions it has no talent for. A perennial It girl, the apostrophe attaches itself to the word "it" aggressively but seldom correctly. It usually indicates possession (the bee's knees, the Pope's children) or missing letters (it's, for "it is"; isn't, for "is not"; can't, for "cannot").
The comma is more of a Nicole Richie. It's not wheeled out quite as frequently as Paris is, but it still sometimes turns up looking aimless.
No sentence fragments. Hang on, is that a sentence? The spellchecker will not pick up every error. Their are two in this sentence that your not going to see underlined in a Word document.
Misuse of their, there and they're, as well as your and you're, is extremely common, even in the hands of skilled writers, so don't be complacent: check these words in your piece.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that many writers use cliches to lend gravitas to their work. Launching an article with an overused phrase such as the one that opened this paragraph doesn't give authority to your writing. It just bores the reader.
We all use cliches from time to time, but if you want your writing to be fresh, original and enjoyable to read, purge it of phrases that have been clogging up the language for too long. Innovate!
Before you write your article, cleanse your mind with the following test of some subeditor's favourites. Spot the problems with these sentences:
The party might weather it's current political difficulties.
The jury members took they're time to decide the verdict.
The minister did not expect to loose his seat.
The Quinn's did not appear in court.
I hope your getting these right!
