Common Problems with Wording and how to Overcome

Common Problems with Wording and how to Overcome Them

Something Fun: • Read the excerpt from Richard Lederer’s Anguished English and see if the messages on the different signs communicate what the owner likely intended.

Something Fun • Chances are that you noticed that the signs do not likely convey what the owner intended and even had humorous unintended meanings. • This is due to the way the people who created the signs worded them. • Note that wording is important and that things that are badly worded many times interfere with intended meaning.

Common Wording Problems • Mixed constructions: ▫ This is probably one of the more common wording problems. A mixed construction occurs when a writer begins a sentence with one grammar plan, but changes to a different one mid-sentence and the two parts don’t really fit together. ▫ Example: �In the essay “Tough Stand on Drug Testing for Students” by Roxanna Hageman, states schools are getting tough with their drug policies. Note that the first part of the sentence doesn’t fit with the second part.

Common Wording Problems • Example: • In the essay “Tough Stand on Drug Testing for Students” by Roxanna Hageman, states schools are getting tough with their drug policies. • Note that the first part--Tough Stand on Drug Testing for Students” by Roxanna Hageman– does not fit with the second part--states schools are getting tough with their drug policies. • Either the first part will need to be changed or the second part will. ▫ In the essay “Tough Stand on Drug Testing for Students” by Roxanna Hageman, she states schools are getting tough with their drug policies. ▫ The essay “Tough Stand on Drug Testing for Students, ” by Roxanna Hageman, states schools are getting tough with their drug policies.

Common Wording Problems • Faulty Predication: ▫ This wording problem occurs when the subject and the predicate of the sentence don’t logically match. ▫ Example: The purpose of television was invented to entertain. �In the above sentence, the subject “The purpose” is the thing that was invented, which is illogical. �It’s likely that the sentence should read “Television was invented to entertain. ” It is logically possible to invent a television, so the subject and the predicate now logically match.

Common Wording Problems • Wrong use of preposition: ▫ Here, a writer either omits a necessary preposition, adds an unnecessary preposition, or uses the wrong preposition.

Common Wording Problems • Example: ▫ We saw our father in television last night. �Here the writer has used the wrong preposition. The writer has used “in” instead of “on” which would idiomatically make more sense.

Common Wording Problems • Example: ▫ They discriminated him. �Here, the writer is missing a necessary preposition. When we use the word “discriminated” in a sentence like this, we need to also use the preposition “against. ” �The sentence should read “They discriminated against him. ”

Common Wording Problems • Example: ▫ He discussed on the importance of doing well in school. �Here, the writer is using an unnecessary preposition: “on. ” In standard English, people don’t “discuss on the importance of doing well in school. ” We “discuss the importance of doing well in school. ” The word “on” just makes the sentence awkwardly worded.

Common Wording Problems • Wrong word form: ▫ This problem occurs when a writer uses the wrong form of a word in a sentence. ▫ Example: “He never gives up; he is very persistence. ” ▫ Notice the form of the word “persistence” is inappropriate for this context and is the wrong form of this word for this context. Here, the writer would need to use the word “persistent” in order for the sentence to sound right.

Common Wording Problems • Malapropism: ▫ This is a humorous substitution of one word for another. �Example: There is so much excrement in the air at the ball game today. �This is a bit humorous since the word “excrement” means human waste, and the appropriate word would have been “excitement. ”