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THE BLACKLIST - Write It Right. A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults| Set Display | Please Turn On Your Virtual Bookmarks | You Can Help This Site | Table of Contents | Ambrose Bierce |
Page 2 of 27
THE BLACKLIST - Write It Right. A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults
_A_ for _An_. "A hotel." "A heroic man." Before an unaccented aspirate use an. The contrary usage in this country comes of too strongly stressing our aspirates.
_Action_ for _Act_. "In wrestling, a blow is a reprehensible action." A blow is not an action but an act. An action may consist of many acts.
_Admission_ for _Admittance_. "The price of admission is one dollar."
_Admit_ for _Confess_. To admit is to concede something affirmed. An unaccused offender cannot admit his guilt.
_Adopt_. "He adopted a disguise." One may adopt a child, or an opinion, but a disguise is assumed.
_Advisedly_ for _Advertently_, _Intentionally_. "It was done advisedly" should mean that it was done after advice.
_Afford_. It is not well to say "the fact affords a reasonable presumption"; "the house afforded ample accommodation." The fact supplies a reasonable presumption. The house offered, or gave, ample accommodation.
_Afraid_. Do not say, "I am afraid it will rain." Say, I fear that it will rain.
_Afterwards_ for _Afterward_.
_Aggravate_ for _Irritate_. "He aggravated me by his insolence." To aggravate is to augment the disagreeableness of something already disagreeable, or the badness of something bad. But a person cannot be aggravated, even if disagreeable or bad. Women are singularly prone to misuse of this word.
_All of_. "He gave all of his property." The words are contradictory: an entire thing cannot be of itself. Omit the preposition.
_Alleged_. "The alleged murderer." One can allege a murder, but not a murderer; a crime, but not a criminal. A man that is merely suspected of crime would not, in any case, be an alleged criminal, for an allegation is a definite and positive statement. In their tiresome addiction to this use of alleged, the newspapers, though having mainly in mind the danger of libel suits, can urge in further justification the lack of any other single word that exactly expresses their meaning; but the fact that a mud-puddle supplies the shortest route is not a compelling reason for walking through it. One can go around.
_Allow_ for _Permit_. "I allow you to go." Precision is better attained by saying permit, for allow has other meanings.
_Allude to_ for _Mention_. What is alluded to is not mentioned, but referred to indirectly. Originally, the word implied a playful, or sportive, reference. That meaning is gone out of it.
_And so_. _And yet_. "And so they were married." "And yet a woman." Omit the conjunction.
_And which_. _And who_. These forms are incorrect unless the relative pronoun has been used previously in the sentence. "The colt, spirited and strong, and which was unbroken, escaped from the pasture." "John Smith, one of our leading merchants, and who fell from a window yesterday, died this morning." Omit the conjunction.
_Antecedents_ for _Personal History_. Antecedents are predecessors. 
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