About Language Tips
(Weekly Language Usage Tips was developed to respond to the needs of fellows, post-docs, and faculty in academic medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. All faults in content and writing are mine alone and not the University’s.)
As most of you know, I spend a lot of time reviewing grant proposals, IRB protocols and other formal writing. Frequently, I see a grammar, spelling, or usage issue that folks get wrong time and time again. Once in a while the mistake is so egregious that I respond pretty vehemently (which accounts for a recent rant about starting a sentence with “as well.”) Since formal writing is so integral to our work (including the receipt of grant awards), I decided to address these issues in a weekly email. The email, Weekly Language Usage Tips, allows me to provide tips on grammar, spelling, usage, and other issues relevant to formal writing.
This blog is designed to be a place where everyone/anyone can comment on the Weekly Language Usage Tips. You can post them anonymously or with your name; it’s up to you. I have been receiving some very interesting comments, and I thought we would all enjoy reading them.
Please note that occasionally, I have seen advertisements on these posts. These have been placed there by WordPress, and I do not endorse them or the companies they represent. It’s the cost of using a free weblog.
So Welcome to the Language Tips blog! I look forward to hearing from you.
Most commonly used references:
Bryson, B. (2002) Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer’s Guide to Getting it Right. New York, NY: Broadway books.
Fowler, HW. (1965)A Dictionary Modern English Usage, Second Edition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Garner, BA.(2009) Garner’s Modern American Usage. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Goodman, NW, Edwards. MB. (2006) Medical Writing; A prescription for Clarity, Third Edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Lynch, J. (2008) The English Language: A user’s guide. Newbury, MA: Focus Publishing.
O’Conner, PT. (2003) Woe is I: the Grammarphobes Guide to Better English in Plain English. New York, NY: Riverhead books.
Walsh, B. (2004) The Elephants of Style. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Chu Duy Thuc said,
May 19, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I really like your blog. My English is not so good. I read better than I write or speak or listen!!! Hope I can learn how to write in a better way. I am wondering if you’d be kind enough to help me do and explain some of my English exercises? I do and am corrected but now and then don’t understand why this one is better than that one. And there is no one I can ask (for they just dont know). Hope you can help me. I’d be very thankful to you. Plz email me as soon as possible.
dlseltzer said,
September 29, 2009 at 10:00 am
I’ll write up a reply to this soon. The quick answer is what you suspect about actually dying vs. metaphorically dying is correct. I’ll try to write later today.
Scott McCormick said,
November 13, 2008 at 12:42 am
This is a marvelous blog! I’ll be coming back in the future. However, this “About” is confusing me, since I don’t actually know what you spend time on … I have no idea who you are! I can only infer that created this for people you know in “real life”, rather than random visitors such as me. But now that you’ve established such a track record of helpfulness, please expect to see us showing up
dls said,
November 13, 2008 at 8:03 pm
You’re right. I will add more info to the ‘About” page. Briefly, the blog was initiated for the faculty researchers in the Schools of the Health Sciences of the University of Pittsburgh. As Director of Research Development in the Center for Research on Health Care (School of Medicine), I work with junior faculty to develop research projects and grant proposals among other things. I review lots and lots of writing, and thus, I decided to start this blog.
Janice Gardner said,
December 18, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I’m so happy to have found this goldmine of information, which came to me rather circuitously while looking up the definition of the Calibri font. I work as a medical transcription auditor, and one of our clients has a physician on staff who is requesting we use this particular font. Thank you for hosting this blog. And to think our company is your neighbor–our headquarters is in Pittsburgh.
Mila said,
January 23, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I found your blog while trying to help a friend understand the difference between “among” and “between” (… hopefully I used the right term just now). Would you be able to write something about the proper use of “will” and “would?” I live in a country where I see so many people use “will” incorrectly, likewise with “would,” and it bothers me, but I can’t explain the difference very well.
Many thanks!
Lucie said,
March 12, 2009 at 8:07 am
Thanks for your wonderful blog. It’s very encouraging to see that some people still care about the correct use of language. Your explanations and examples are really helpful.
JC said,
April 28, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I love this blog and hope someone can reslove my issue: In addresses (on envelopes or on letters, for example) should the word “floor” be capitalized (e.g. 3rd Floor?) I seem to recall that a helpful hint was to write out the ordinal designation, presumeably to show that capitalization would not be necessary. Is there support for not capitalizing it (as I prefer?)
dlseltzer said,
April 28, 2009 at 10:49 pm
I would not capitalize it when using the ordinal number (e.g., 21st floor), but I would capitalize it if it is part of the address (e.g., Floor 21). This is consistent with the other rules for capitalizing parts of an address.
ChienminChuang said,
September 24, 2009 at 5:48 am
This is absolutely one of the greatest language websites in the world. I am glad to have the chance to join here. But I am not sure where I should leave my silly question to? So, please base with me for the first time, if it is not allowed to ask a question here. (But please also indicate where I should post, if so)
The question lying in the deep of heart is:
What is the difference between ‘to die’ and ‘to death’? Should they be used in different occations?
Thanks for your help in advance. : )
dlseltzer said,
September 24, 2009 at 9:35 am
This is a fine place for your questions. Could you use ‘to die’ and ‘to death’ in a sentence so I better understand what you are looking for. Thanks, and I am glad you like the site.
ChienminChuang said,
September 29, 2009 at 4:49 am
Thank you for kindly replying me.
My question is
Can both of them show the degree of doing something or
being treated somehow? Or one of them shows the degree but the other one indicates someone is REALLY going to die (but not dead yet) under some condition? My initial guess is ‘to die’ means someone is REALLY going to die under some condition while ‘to death’ describes how hard the condition is. But I am not really sure about. See the examples below:
Eg1.The young man is tortured to die/death.
>> Is there any difference between two usages?
Eg2.I am starving (or bored) to die/death.
>>Different?
Thank you for your reply in advance.
Cheers
Fergus said,
November 16, 2009 at 8:12 am
Hi,
Just wondering if it’s possible to frame someone “with” a crime, or do we frame them “for” a crime.
I always thought it was the former, but google only gives me 24 hits for “framed with murder” and about 1.5 million for “framed for murder”.
Advice much appreciated,
Fergus
dlseltzer said,
November 16, 2009 at 8:29 am
It should be ‘for.’ I’ll write this up and explain it during the next few weeks.
Nicole said,
November 17, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Hmm. Wondering if I should email the HR webmaster at webmaster@hr.pitt.edu to explain the correct usage and the incorrect usage of “effect” in several job descriptions under the section “Organizational Impact”…..
dlseltzer said,
November 17, 2009 at 2:30 pm
By all means, do! That’s embarrassing.
Steve Ford said,
November 18, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I am new to this blog. Please forgive me if my request is a well beaten, dead horse. I am unable to warm up to the use of “done” instead of “finished”. I was taught that the food was done and when I had eaten all that I could hold, I was finished. Do I have a valid argument?
Matt said,
December 11, 2009 at 11:23 am
This is a great blog. I would like to receive these posts by email. gingomr@upmc.edu
Lora E. Burke said,
September 20, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Deb,
This is a great blog. We discuss your postings in our Data Meetings regularly.
Keep up the great work and please add my email address to your mailing list.
Lora
Leon said,
December 31, 2009 at 9:37 am
Thank you for creating this wonderful blog. It has helped me, and I’m sure countless others to better understand and correct their everyday errors in an easy-to-read and amusing fashion.
I also have a quick question. What difference do you see between neglect and negligence? I see negligence as mistreatment of inanimate objects, and seems most fitting in a legal context whereas neglect has connotations of prolonged mistreatment and that the mistreatment is directed toward a human (or other creature). What do you think?
Keep up the great work
Leon
Leon said,
December 31, 2009 at 9:42 am
P.S. I don’t normally use commas before ands as I repeatedly have above. It must have been the pressure of posting on a language and grammar-themed blog.
Jaclyn said,
January 8, 2010 at 6:18 pm
I love your blog! I have sent your web address to everyone in my department. I am in a “not English as a first language” environment and we often have “proper usage” issues. My mother was an English teacher and our speech and writing was always “by the book”. I cannot, however, always remember the rule to apply. When I am correcting someone, my reasoning is usually that “I don’t know why, I just know that that is the correct way.”
I join you in some of your pet peeves and add one of my own: Chantix, a new stop-smoking aid, advertises that “most Chantix users were quit by week nine.” Yikes! (I am not a frequent !!! user. I find most e-mails with too many !!!!! exhausting to read.)
Deepali Joshi said,
January 13, 2010 at 1:40 am
Thanks for this blog. As a medical journal editor, I owe musch of my language skill to this. Please help me with the use of ‘compared to’ versus ‘compared with’.
Thanks in advance,
Dee
bruce laru said,
February 5, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Great tool!
Please include me on the language tip distribution list.
Steve Ford said,
February 8, 2010 at 3:39 pm
One of my pet peeves is “I could care less”. When I hear someone use the phrase, I am prone to ask them just how much less would they be willing to care? “I couldn’t care less” makes perfect sense and conveys the intended message but folks continue to butcher the phrase.
Beanie said,
February 22, 2010 at 11:44 pm
do you match something with/to something else?
is something mismatched with/to something else?
Ted Zuur said,
April 4, 2010 at 9:46 am
Please send me your weekly email. I like your blog, and have used it several times. Also, can I begin a sentence with also? And, (I know I can’t begin a sentence with and!) would you refer me to another source about punctuation marks always preceding footnote numbers? In Latin America both conventions are used. Thanks, Ted
dlseltzer said,
April 4, 2010 at 5:27 pm
I will add you to the list. Just google “punctuation and footnotes,” and you’ll find many references. It’s fine to start a sentence with AND and ALSO, but only in informal writing, not formal.
Reianna Garner said,
May 2, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Thank you so very much for this blog. I am a senior in college, majoring in psychology, so this blog is a blessing when I’m writing those dreaded lab reports. Please add me to your weekly email list.
Thanks,
Reianna
Carrie Perkins said,
July 29, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Thank you for this blog. I just stumbled upon the “Tip 1: Track and tract” entry and was pleased to find an accurate and helpful clarification. I have a degree in English, but still find that I have to check myself–particluarly on these malapropisms that have become so common! I am encouraged to find a source that is both reliable and relevant.
Please add me to your weekly email list.
Thanks,
Carrie
Paul Roberts said,
July 30, 2010 at 9:15 pm
I would very much like to add my voice to the very deserved praise in this list of comments. Your blog is very addictive reading, and I have learned an awful lot.
I have one question that you may be able to help with. In a peer-review of an academic paper, I was told I should not use ‘whence’ in, ‘…depends only upon the words, and not on the documents whence they came’. I don’t believe ‘whence’ is too stuffy or archaic, and it seems less neat to use ‘from which they came’. Also, as the word ‘hence’ is still popular there seems no reason to drop ‘whence’.
I would be very grateful to hear you views.
Joan Britten said,
September 30, 2010 at 2:11 pm
You have probably commented on this before, but I couldn’t find it in the archives. Is it Dean Name and the University of Pittsburh School of Something congratulate or congratulates the following individuals?
rich said,
December 6, 2010 at 2:00 am
Great site! Wish more would read it.
Emmie said,
January 10, 2011 at 10:29 am
Thanks for providing a vital service. Your detailed explanations are so informative and useful.
Kerry Heubel said,
February 19, 2011 at 5:38 pm
As an English language teacher in Australia, what we teach our students and what they hear on television (their major source of incoming English language) often conflict. We tend to encourage British English though differences arise between levels of acceptance in US and British usage. I am fascinated by these differences, though, I note the closer I get to a linguistic source the fewer those differences. Would you please put me on your email list twice. I am encouraged by reading your missives.
dlseltzer said,
February 24, 2011 at 10:01 am
I tried to add you to my email list but your address was rejected. Do you have another email address we can try?
Kaiser said,
May 3, 2011 at 5:51 am
Hi, I have a couple of grammar questions:
1. When using words like “either”, “neither”, “none”, “any”, etc. in sentences with a second-person subject, is the verb supposed to be in the singular? As in, “If either of you knows…” or “Neither of you has given me…”? With the phrase “any of you”, using a singular verb sounds… just wrong. But I’ve heard people in movies say things like, “Which of you does the cooking?”
2. I heard this line in a movie once: “Finish your breakfasts.” Two people were eating their breakfast(s?). If this is correct, does the plurality apply to “lunch” and “dinner”, as well?
Thanks! I’m really glad I found this site.
Natalie said,
May 9, 2011 at 3:38 pm
I would LOVE to be on your mailing list!
Thank you for being such a super resource!
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Anonymous said,
August 1, 2011 at 11:19 am
Can you please explain when to use “arrive in” and when to use “arrive at”
Thank you!
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done.
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April 30, 2012 at 11:57 am
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dlseltzer said,
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will do next week.