« I am the Rule of Lenity | Main | Public Defender Retreat? »
Grammar Peccadillos
Reading through a group of “notes” by some of the 2Ls on my journal staff reminds me of being a grader in grad school for both my own students and the students of actual faculty. I'll save those reminiscences for another day, but they also remind me of how much little writing quirks can get to me. Here are three of them I've just seen:
- “Lessen” is a word I wish was not a word. In almost every context you can find a better replacement to express your meaning, usually reduce or decrease. “Lessen” is just a week verb and it obviously sounds like the much more common “lesson” and hence causes confusion, at least for me.
- “Loosing” is not a word, but many people seem to think it is. Try “losing.”
- “Irregardless” is also not a word, but again, many people seem to think it is. “Regardless” is what they are looking for.
On a happier note, I've finally finished reading all of these “notes” and therefore my work for the journal is nearly done. Now there's that little matter of finding a job still hanging over my head. Ugh.
Posted January 22, 2006 03:32 PM | 3L
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mowabb.com/mt32/mt-tb.cgi/5196
You know every grammar post is required to have a mistake, right? s/week/weak/
Posted by: jgt at January 22, 2006 07:10 PM
Yeah, that's awesome! And that's one reason I had to get out of the editing/grading biz -- I'm really not that GRATE at it. Obviously. ;-)
Posted by: ambimb at January 22, 2006 09:46 PM
Perhaps a lesson is in order about using lessen less.
Hehehe. Sorry... you set 'em up... :)
I also like to point out to people that if irregardless _were_ a word, it would would be a double negative, and therefore would actually mean "with regard". :)
Posted by: Dave! at January 22, 2006 11:21 PM
Yeah... I just read this post and was going to comment what #1 said.
Lessen is really not such a "week" verb :)
Posted by: Tim Marman at January 23, 2006 12:48 PM
Two of your three are my pet peeves as well: loosing (damn, but that one annoys me) and irregardless. However, I've learned that irregardless has actually evolved into a recognized word; I still hate it -- either use irrespective or regardless. Sheesh!
Posted by: Denise at January 23, 2006 08:35 PM
