Five Uncommonly Serious Mistakes

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Five Uncommonly Serious Mistakes

The following 5 mistakes are not among the 20 most common, but they receive strong negative responses when committed. In other words, we don’t make these mistakes very often, but when we do, we cause strong negative reactions... If you don’t make these mistakes, forget them. If you do, take steps to get rid of them.

1. Objective case pronouns used as subjects
	Wrong:	Her guru and her agreed that we are what we think.
	Right:	Her guru and she agreed that we are what we think.

2. Double negatives
	Wrong:	One hard lesson for many to learn is that worry won’t hardly change the future.

	Right:	One hard lesson for many to learn is that worry will hardly change the future.


3. Failure to capitalize proper names
	Wrong:	roger von oech, the president of creative think, has conducted workshops on creativity for american express, apple computer, procter and gamble, and the japanese management association.

	Right:	Roger von Oech, the president of Creative Think, has conducted workshops on creativity for American Express, Apple Computer, Procter and Gamble, and the Japanese Management Association.


4. Faulty parallelism
	Wrong:	A good manager requires the ability to lead, the capacity to learn, and delegating.

	Right:	A good manager requires the ability to lead, the capacity to learn, and the willingness to delegate.


5. Subjective-case pronouns used as objects
	Wrong:	The senator’s use of double negatives surprised my students and I.

	Right:	The senator’s use of double negatives surprised my students and me.


Douglas Cazort's Under the Grammar Hammer, from which this information was drawn (pp. 25-27), is a great reference for writers. Rather than looking for every infraction of every rule in a standard handbook, with this book you can look for those errors you are most likely to make. You can find more information about this book online or you can order a copy from any bookstore. It's ISBN number is ISBN 1-5656-5647-4.