Choosing the right words

This course has offered a good refresher on homonyms for me, as I had almost completely forgotten what those were. There are many words in the English language that can trip up even the most skilled writers and speakers: affect and effect, illicit and elicit and demur and demure to name a few. Even seemingly basic combinations as affect and effect give me trouble sometimes. I usually have to stop for a moment before writing either word just to make sure I am using it correctly.

One lesson I have learned so far in studying such combinations, is to understand the difference in the type of the word. For example, upon closer research, you will discover that “affect” is primarily used as a verb, while “effect” is used as a noun. While not every set of homonyms may be this cut and dry, there is a distinct difference you can find between each set that will help you to select the right word.

Editing Mistake

As I have previously posted about, I am not a big fan of typing in all capitals, save for perhaps a few appropriate situations. This annoying error comes from the subject line of an email my wife and I received from a political campaign:

“TOO Close”

Not only does capitalizing the entire word “too” stick out like a sore thumb, it interrupts the overall flow of the phrase, and is rather annoying.