by Derek Wyckoff

Created on: January 14, 2007   Last Updated: May 14, 2007

Rather than being a standard list of "commonly misused words" ("confused," more often than "misused," actually-you can find such lists in nearly every writing guide in publication), this is a short list of words I've run across during my teaching and writing experience-words that can drive editors to distraction and land you in rejection pile before page two is ever reached. They are presented more or less in order of frequency.

1: "so"
Number one with a bullet-when used as an intensifier: common in everyday speech, utterly inappropriate in writing (unless you're writing dialogue). "So" is not an intensifier, it is a comparative; we use it when speaking, and leave the comparison to be understood... this should never be done in writing. "He was so fast," "It was so shocking," and so forth. Doesn't anybody remember the old stand-up comedy setup: "My home town was so small..."? If you can hear in your mind the audience shouting back "How small was it?" you've got the idea. All occurrences of "so" in this usage must be followed by a dependent clause: "so X that Y." Easy test for these: if "so" can be replaced by "very," then it should be. (And then probably eliminated altogether as being unnecessary verbiage.)

2: "like"
Meaning "resembles," in the sense under discussion here; misused two different ways. Do not say "It was like the rain just started pouring down" if the rain really DID start pouring down! You are not discussing a resemblance here; you are discussing the actual thing. Say "The rain just started pouring down." The other misuse, arising from everyday speech, is similar, but also resembles the use of "so" as an intensifier: "He was, like, so handsome I couldn't believe it!" (You'd normally hear this shortened to: "He was, like, so handsome!"-a portmanteau, two errors in one.) If he was "like" handsome... then he wasn't handsome!
Substitute "as" for "like" whenever you see it: if it's still grammatically correct, use "as" instead-it's usually better anyway. If the substitution produces nonsense, eliminate "like" altogether; if that makes sense, leave it that way. If you've used "like" to mean "enjoy, have affection for, consider to be a friend," or something similar, consider substituting one of those, or some other more precise term. "Like" should only appear when nothing else can be substituted for it; that will leave more than enough occurrences as is.

3: transition words
Yes, yes: the teacher always wanted these. Consequently, they get used far too often.

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