Good evening, everybody. It is 6 o 'clock. How
are you guys doing? Before we begin with this
typical podcast, I'm going to go ahead and let
you guys know that we're going to go ahead and
move on to something new. Before I continue on
with another writing skill, this is still food
for thought, Thoughts That Fit With You by Neogentrics,
but I'm going to be also putting my podcast up
available on YouTube real soon, so y 'all can
look forward to that. And They will be available
also on my Facebook page. I will definitely be
making that available as well. Along with that,
my book that I wrote, I am currently working
on a short story series. That is already available
now in audio printed and e -book format through
Amazon. Coming up in the future, I will play
a piece of it. For those who are interested in
hearing the rest of it. just so you know where
the book is available at. I will probably go
through the entire book and put it on here for
you to listen to in my podcast in the upcoming
in the future. So there's something to look forward
to. Now, to get back on topic, like I said before,
this is Food for Thought, Thoughts That Fit With
You by Neogentrix. And last time we covered just
basic writing skill essentials. Today, we're
going to move on to the next thing, common mistakes
in writing. Okay? Some writing mistakes are very
common and frequently seen in both printed materials
and online, you know. And by learning to recognize
such errors, you can improve your writing skills
and avoid common writing mistakes in the future.
Okay? Remember, mistakes in writing can be embarrassing
and costly. I mean, would you buy from a company
whose marketing materials are prep? I'm sorry,
are peppered with common mistakes that could
have easily been avoided. Think about that for
a minute. And then, you know, take some time
to familiarize yourself with certain mistakes
listed on select websites, pages, grammar, textbooks,
and so on. To help you remember to always get
somebody else to check your writing before it
is published, okay? Even the most confident writers
make mistakes sometimes, okay? Like one of the
most common ones, affect and affect. Affect with
an A is a verb. For example, sometimes the weather
affects my mood. The other is effect with an
E. It's a noun. The example for this would be
the effect of weather on ice cream sales is well
documented. By thinking in terms of the effect,
you are usually determined whether to use affect
or effect since the will not work in front of
a verb. You can't do that. And if you did, it
wouldn't make any sense. And to add to the confusion,
bear in mind that some people may also use effect
as a verb. For example, contractors seek to effect
a settlement with strikers. But this usage is
slightly... archaic, and most often used in legal
writings. So you don't really have to worry about
that too much. Let's move on to the next thing.
Apostrophes. Continuing in the list of common
mistakes. Apostrophes strike fear into the heart
of many. However, you know, learning... A few
simple rules and inevitable exceptions should
help you use apostrophes with ease with no problem.
The apostrophe is used for a purpose, either
to indicate a possession, implying ownership
or a contraction, in place of other letters.
Since it's used to indicate a contraction is
the easiest, we'll deal with this one first.
Using apostrophes to indicate contractions, where
one or more letters have been dropped, an apostrophe
is used as a replacement. Like it is is it. Or
we are equaling we're. Does not equaling doesn't.
Or of the clock equaling o 'clock. As a simplified
form. When you use it to represent possession.
It can be used in terms of, like, Matthew's car.
The word Matthew followed by an S, but put an
apostrophe there, showing ownership. Or the farmer's
field. One's field owned by one farmer. You know,
if the subject, the farmer, or Matthew, has a
name ending with an S, then there's a choice
to either follow the formal rule and... You know,
leave it like, you know, the Jones's house and
add another apostrophe S or drop the final S.
Hence the Jones's house as the as an example
with one S that was originally there. The choice
is a matter of style, but the importance, the
important thing about it is to be consistent
throughout the entire paper. OK, if the subject
is plural, the apostrophe is placed after the
S by default. OK, examples of this would be teacher
staff. The farmer's field. And on that note,
you know, note that if the word is already plural,
for example, children or people, then you just
write children's or people's. All right. Although
it doesn't quite sound right. With that being
said, there are times not to use an apostrophe.
If the word is plural, then don't use an apostrophe.
For example, kittens or apostrophes, you don't
add an apostrophe to those words. Placing an
apostrophe before the final S is universally
considered incorrect and commonly referred to
as the green grocer's apostrophe or green grocer's
apostrophe. You know, with or without. The S
there. The apostrophe either goes before or after
the S. It's already at the end of the word. You
know. But doing that refers to either more than
one. Not just one. Okay. To write. There is two
T's in Matthew. May confuse the reader. Even
though it's grammatically correct. Alternatively.
You could rephrase this as. There are two T's.
Spelling it out, there are two, T -W -O, T's,
T in quotation marks, S in Matthew. However,
the modern convention is to avoid using apostrophe
and plurals wherever possible, even in the plural
of numbers and abbreviations and letters. For
example, I keep buying DVDs. You don't use an
apostrophe for the word DVDs. Or, he loves 80s
music. you know use an apostrophe for 80s it's
preferable to just adding an apostrophe if you
just leave it like that on to the next thing
could have should have would have even though
we might pronounce could have as could have a
contraction of that word or rather saying could
of is incorrect even writing it wouldn't be correct
at all always use have should have or would have
it's actually more useful to use these words
in their broken -up form than to try to use their
contracted counterparts. However, these two upcoming
words I'm going to mention, its and its, are
the two most confusing words in the English language.
There are two of them. There are many others,
but these are one of the top ones. The confusion
between its and its occurs because on virtually
every other word, it's an apostrophe s. you know,
apostrophe plus S indicates, you know, possession.
So English speakers naturally want to use its
apostrophe S to mean something belongs to it.
But that is actually wrong. It's with the apostrophe
is a contraction of two words. It is or it has.
It's with no apostrophe is its possessive form
like hers, his or whose. But, you know, like
I said before. If you have doubt as to which
version to use, try replacing the word with it
is or it has. If it still scans correctly, then
you can use the apostrophe. Otherwise, don't
use it. I'm not going to go over this one too,
too much. But the words there, there, and there,
referring to their, T -H -E -R -E, their, T -H
-E -I -R, and their, T -H -E -Y -R -E. There
is a difference between them. Their, what T -H
-E -R -E, refers to a place or an idea. Whereas
their, T -H -E -I -R, is possessive in meaning.
And their, T -H -E -Y apostrophe R -E, is a contraction
of they are. I shouldn't have to really express
what they really mean with any examples because
it's kind of self -explanatory. But then there's
theirs and theirs. Theirs spelled T -H -E -R
-E apostrophe S and theirs T -H -E -I -R -S.
I shouldn't have to really express this one too,
too much. That there's with the apostrophe is
a contraction of there is, whereas there's T
-H -E -I -R -S is still possessive as a pronoun,
but it's the plural form and usually used in
third person writings. So it's a word you can
technically use when you're writing papers in
English class. Oh, thank you. Next are the two,
two, two. As you already know, there are three
kinds of two. Two, T -O, has two functions. First
is the preposition that always precedes a noun,
hence, I am going to the shops, or this belongs
to Mary. Second, two, T -O, indicates an infinitive
when it's preceded by a verb. It's kind of hard
to talk today when I can barely breathe out of
my nose. I'm sorry. I need to sleep. He wants
to go for a walk. Thus, it's in a way more being
of a possessive nature in the state that it's
saying something that needs to be done. Next
is to, T -O -O. It also has two uses. The first
is as a synonym for also. Like, can I come to?
I think that belongs. I think that's his bag,
too. It can also be replaced with the word also.
I think that's his bag also. Or can I come also?
If you can replace the word T -O -O with the
word also, then that word fits there. However,
the second one means excessively when it's preceded
by an adjective or an advert. Like, I'm too tired
to go out. Or you're too generous. In these cases,
using the word also to replace the word to, T
-W -T -O -O, is incorrect because it wouldn't
make any sense. And then the last two, T -W -O
is a number. Therefore, it is less confusing
to use. However, keep this in mind that while
this one may be the least confusing of the three,
the most common confusion is between T -O and
T -O -O. And with that, like I said, try replacing
the word with also or as well. And if the phrase
makes sense, then use T -O -O. Okay? Otherwise,
it's probably just T -O. Because obviously it
won't be a number. And then there's other words,
too, that are just frequently misused. We're
going to cover those in a second. Alright, so
the frequently misused words are... First one
is decimate. Strictly enough, decimate means
to reduce by one -tenth and not to reduce to
one -tenth. However, this usage is now increasingly
common and seems likely to become accepted. We
don't want this to happen. Next is literally.
Literally means actually or without exaggeration.
When you say I literally... you are describing
something exactly as it happened and without
exaggeration. If you were to say, I literally
died of boredom, you're implying you actually
died and the use of literally in that context
is actually incorrect. Next is lose and loose.
Lose is the opposite of win, whilst loose is
the opposite of tight or contained. That's the
difference between those two. Next is weather
and weather. Weather with E -A -T -H -E -R and
weather spelled with W -H -E -T -H -E -R. The
first one, W -E -A, weather, is usually a noun
referring to the atmospheric conditions as a
particular point in time. You know, like, the
weather outside is, it's hot, 105 degrees, and
possible 50 % chance of rain. Whereas the other
weather is a conjunction that introduces alternatives,
for example. Whether I win or lose, or you do
it whether you like it or not. Whether is similar
to if, and if you can replace the word with if,
then you can use the word whether. Although it
might be better just to use if. In conclusion,
while this is a very brief section that I cover
on common mistakes found in English writing,
it is still very important to look into these
topics, these things, and correct it. However,
as you can see, the English language is unfortunately
complex and most spelling and grammar checkers
will not pick up subtle distinctions between
some of the often confusing words that I just
mentioned. Likewise, such checkers will not pick
up on mistyped words such as for instead of for
or if instead of it or indeed spot all missing
words. It is vital. that you in therefore do
not reply rely on a spell checker or to proofread
your work for you it really is hard to breathe
sorry the best advice is to read your writings
or better still get someone else to read it and
then check it for you most people find it easier
to spot errors when reading from a printed copy
compared to reading it on a computer screen so
just print it out and read it that way all right
and that concludes this section on common mistakes
in writing. Next time I'll cover formal and informal
writing styles.