Top 10 Common English Goofs by Web Authors
In reviewing and browsing web sites over the years, I have
compiled a list of the most common misuses of English by web
authors. Here they are in Letterman (reverse) order.
10. Who, which or that?
"Who" (or "whom") refers to persons. "Which" refers to animals
or things, never to persons. "That" can refer to either persons
or things.
Examples:
The girl who was hungry. The dog that wagged its tail. The
software which I wrote.
9. Anyone vs any one
"Anyone" means "any person," not necessarily any specific
person. It could refer to multiple people simultaneously.
As two words, "any one" refers to a single person.
Examples:
Anyone can download my software. But the software can only be
used by any one user at a time.
8. Commonly misspelled words
All right Dependable Independent Recommend Responsible Separate
7. Don't put punctuation at the end of a URL
While not technically an English grammatical error, don't put a
period or anything immediately after a URL reference. Doing so
will usually invalidate the URL. You might call this an internet
grammatical rule.
Example:
Notice the lack of a period in the following sentence. My URL is
http://article-promotion.blogspot.com
6. Software not softwares
"Software" can be singular or plural. Never use "softwares."
5. Do the quotes go after or before the period?
Put quotes after a period or comma. Put quotes before a colon.
Put quotes after a question mark unless the entire sentence is a
question. This is a US English standard. British English usage
can differ.
Examples:
He asked, "Are you hungry?" She replied, "Yes, I am hungry." Did
she say, "Yes"?
4. There, their, or they're
"There" is used in two ways. It can specify a place. It can also
be used as an expletive or empty word to start a sentence.
"Their" is used as a possessive form of "they".
"They're" is short for "they are."
Examples:
I live there, not here. There are nine planets in the solar
system. The two boys raced their bikes. They're both tired after
walking up the stairs.
3. Powerful
Too many developers describe their software as, "XXX Software is
a powerful, easy-to-use, ... ." I searched download.com and
found 2149 descriptions or titles of software containing the
word "powerful." Powerful has many meanings, most referring to
how effectively something is performed, as in muscular. A car
with 450 horsepower is clearly more powerful than one with only
200 horsepower. But what is powerful software? If you mean
feature-rich (like Adobe Photoshop), then say so. If your
software does only one thing, but it does it completely or
thoroughly (like CounterSpy), then say so. But please, no more
powerful software.
2. Site or sight
A "site" is a place.
"Sight" refers to your sense of vision.
Examples:
A web site is a place on the internet that you visit with your
browser. A beautiful sunset is a marvellous sight.
And, finally, the most common English blunder by web authors is:
1. Its or It's
Use "it's" only when it means "it is." Unless you can replace
"it's" with "it is," use "its." Never use "its'."
Examples:
It's raining today.
The dog wagged its tail.
Conclusion:
English is very difficult for persons whose native language is
not English. It is also difficult for many English-speaking
authors.
Unfortunately, most of the common grammatical errors will not be
caught by a spell checker, so you have to manually check your
writing for them.
An excellent reference is the short and timeless book, The
Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. A free
online version of this book is available at
http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html
I hope that web authors can use this article to recognize and
correct some of the most common grammatical blunders that abound
on the internet.
Copyright