Free How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and the Best Ways to Avoidthem by Ben Yagoda

common and insidious problem is word choices that are off, sometimes by just a hair, sometimes by a Howard Stern wig and a full beard. Too often, reading student papers is like listeningto a routine by Norm Crosby, the malapropeptic comedian who referred to having a good “rappaport” with a like-minded friend. Here are some real-life examples, with what I guess to be the right word in parenthesis:
    On the Mason-Dixon Line: An Anthology of Contemporary Delaware Writers exemplifies
(consists of
—but even better would be
is) a collection of essays, poems, and short stories by Delaware’s own authors.
    Of the many things the students
aspired
(expected) to see, a terrorist attack was not one of them.
    …the drop in candidates can be
accredited
(attributed) to
…
    Stories about the hurricane
invade
(dominate) the entire first section of the newspaper.
    No one can
blame
(accuse) John Henrickson of being an apathetic college student.
    The vast
proportion
(majority) of students is enrolled in the College of Arts and Science.
    She said it was her father’s participation in the army which
possessed
(inspired, motivated) her to join the College Republicans.
    Then there’s this one, which seems to encapsulate all the problems students are having:
    The land, which is currently occupied
with
(by) older, run-down homes, will be rejuvenated
(I’m not sure what the right word is—I just know that rejuvenated isn’t it)
to fit the positive
stigma
(image) that the city
manager
(is trying) to uphold.
    How to fix or avoid the problem? Again, it’s a toughie. There’s not much more you can do than undertake a close scrutiny of your writing, dictionary in hand. Be very wary of the online thesaurus. If you are having problems with word choice, you also might do well to find a smart, well-read friend and agree to read each other’s work.
    One common wrong-word subcategory happens when writers have a decent idea in mind and start it off well, but aren’t rigorous about matching up their subjects and verbs. Consider:
    [
Investigations at that time did not uncover the source of the outbreak, and the number of infections soon ceased.
]
    Well, infections may have ceased, but
numbers
don’t cease. The fix is simple:
    Investigations at that time did not uncover the source of the outbreak, and infections soon ceased.
    Similarly, in
    [
In the past two years the national unemployment rate has doubled and is at a high that falls second to only one other peak in history, occurring in the 1980s.
]
    the word
fall
doesn’t really belong and got the writer in trouble. Various adjustments could be made to spruce the sentence up, but at the very least you can say:
    In the past two years, the national unemployment rate has doubled; it’s now at a high that is second to only one other peak in history, occurring in the 1980s.
    D. Grammar
    As I suggested in the introduction, grammatical mistakes are overrated—by which I mean they get a disproportionate amount of attention as a source of bad writing. By definition, native speakers of a language know its grammar. No American above the age of four would say, “Him gave the book to I.” However, we might say, “Peter and him went to the movie with Sarah and I,” which is nonstandard, or, to put it bluntly, wrong.
    That, like virtually every other common grammatical “mistake,” is an instance of vernacular or colloquial expressions clashing with the standards of formal or public writing and usage. The mistakes fall into three categories:
Sanitized, Skunked
, and
Still Wrong
.
    1. SANITIZED
    This refers to usages that at one time were verboten but, over the decades and sometimes centuries, have become acceptable to everybody, or just about everybody. In fact, in most of these cases, the formerly “correct” usage now sounds either too formal or just plain weird. However, you may have a supervisor, editor, or teacher who sticks to the old-fashioned dicta. If so, he or she, unfortunately, is