Something I found interesting from the Topical Guide was the bit on “compared to/compared with.”   I had thought about the two phrases before, and realized that I used them interchangeably even though I suspected there had to some rules associated with proper use of them, of which I was ignorant.  After going through the reading I discovered that compared to is for likening one thing to another while compared with is for a juxtaposition of two items similarities and differences.  It seems obvious now, however I often times fail to make the proper selection in my speech.  Little tips and rules such as these can really help develop the appearance of professionalism in your writing.

Another needed distinction made in the reading was for that of damage/destroy.  Quite often on the news networks, mainly CNN, I hear reporters commenting on a military of terrorism incident and mistakenly commit the grammar crime of redundancy while trying to amplify the word destroy, which is the highest level of degree.  The Topical Guide points out the example of people saying “completely destroyed,” which is a funny when you try to image in your head how destruction compared to complete destruction could possibly differ.