Monthly Archives: September 2016

Which Word?: Coarse vs. Course

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Hello everyone!

It’s time for another tricky word pair, and today’s subjects tend to throw a wrench in things by virtue of their identical pronunciations and nearly identical spellings. As is true with many similar tricky word pairs that sound the same and are spelled very similarly, some of which I’ve mentioned before (their/they’re/there, you’re/your, two/too/to, and so on), it’s very easy when you’re writing to think only of how a word sounds and then to accidentally write the same-sounding (but wrong) word without even noticing. That means that the real trick for mastering this word pair and others like it is simply paying close attention as you’re writing and then going back and double-checking yourself after you finish. So, with that being said, let’s return to today’s pair…

Coarse is an adjective meaning rough or rude, while course is a noun meaning path/route or series of classes. When you’re writing, you can remember which is the noun and which is the adjective by remembering that coarse has an a, like adjective, while course has an ou, like noun. But again, the most important part of getting this pair right is paying attention to spelling as well as pronunciation as you write, and then checking yourself at the end.

Until next time!

Which Word?: Word Order

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Hello everyone!

I’m breaking from our series of tricky word pairs to present you with this interesting and incredibly useful article that explains the proper order of adjectives before a noun: “opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun” (without the hyphens, of course). As the article explains, most English speakers know when a series of adjectives sounds incorrect, but since we’re not taught any rule governing the order of such an adjectival series, we have trouble explaining why it is incorrect. Not so for non-native speakers, who are taught that rule! So please, take a look, and never have to wonder about adjective order again: http://qz.com/773738/how-non-english-speakers-are-taught-this-crazy-english-grammar-rule-you-know-but-youve-never-heard-of/?utm_source=atlfb

Until next time!

Which Word?: Refer vs. Reference

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Hello everyone!

I’m back to talk about another often-misused word pair, and today’s culprits are particularly close to my heart. You see, I had a wonderful professor in college who used to rant about people using reference when they ought to be using refer, and so I can’t help but think of him and all he taught me about writing every time I encounter the same error.

The crux of the issue with these two words is that refer is the verb form while reference is the noun form, but it’s become quite popular to use reference as a verb. Now, you might be wondering what’s wrong with that, since you would observe if you looked up reference in the Merriam-Webster dictionary that it is listed as a verb as well as a noun. The problem with relying solely on the dictionary to determine appropriate word usage, however, is that the dictionary is designed to reflect popular usage of words–not to present what is actually correct according to the rules of the language. So while the dictionary’s a great tool to determine word meanings and spellings, it’s better to rely on style guides (Chicago Manual of Style, APA, MLA, and many others) to learn the rules about word usage.

Which brings us back to the fact that refer is the verb and reference is the noun. So, She refers to her style guides frequently, not She references her style guides frequently. Similarly, She uses her style guides as references, not She uses her style guides as refers. And it’s even okay to say She makes reference to her style guides frequently (although I’d advise against that since it adds an unnecessary verb)–the key point is to keep reference as a noun and leave the verb work to refer. I promise that it will make your writing stand out!

Until next time!