Those who work in the legal industry generally communicate professionally, clearly, and correctly. But no one’s perfect. How many of these errors have made their way into your written communications?
1. Lie v. lay. These get misused so much that when someone finally does get them right, it’s noticeable. Lie = lie down to sleep. Lay = lay something down. People lie down and lie on couches and lie in wait to ambush other people. But they lay their burdens down and lay their cards on the table and watch chickens lay eggs. And if it all happened yesterday, those people lay down and slept while the chickens laid eggs.
2. From v. than. One thing differs from another, so A is different from B. Better than but different from. Taller than but different from. Odder than but different from.
3. Less v. fewer. Less isn’t countable: less milk, less humor, less intelligent. Fewer is countable: fewer people, fewer papers, 10 items or fewer. More goes either way: more milk and 10 items or more.
4. Quotation marks with periods and commas. With periods and commas, the quotes always go outside. “I think that’s right,” she said softly. His response was loud: “And I know that’s wrong.”
5. Everybody, anyone, nobody, and they. Everybody hung up their coats. Anyone can give their opinion. Nobody said they didn’t want to go. All of those are wrong. Really wrong.
Words that end in -body and -one are singular. The dilemma, of course, is who wants to say everybody hung up his or her coat or nobody said he or she didn’t want to go?
The only option is to rewrite. Turn the singulars into plurals: all the lawyers hung up their coats. Or replace their with an or the: anyone can give an opinion. Or rephrase the sentence: nobody objected to going.
In speech, the they and their don’t sound too bad. But in writing, they are noticeable errors.
6. The Smiths v. the Smith’s. If it’s plural, there’s no apostrophe. It’s the Smiths, the Joneses, and the Williamses.
7. “Non” with a hyphen and without. If what’s non is lowercase, there’s no hyphen; if it’s uppercase, there is. Thus, it’s nonpatriotic but non-American, nonpoetic but non-Homeric, and nonbeliever but non-Christian. The same with It’s unnatural but un-American.
8. Either/neither is v. either/neither are. Make the verb match the last word. Neither the attorneys nor the judge has the answer, but neither the judge nor the attorneys have the answer.
9. This kind v. these kinds. Make them match. It’s not these kind of lawsuits or those type of lawsuits but these kinds of lawsuits.
10. Hung v. hanged. A tool is hung in the shed. A prisoner is hanged on the gallows. And for treason, he was hanged until senseless and then cut into four pieces, or hanged, drawn, and quartered. Thankfully, that was reserved for the men; women, being luckier, were merely burnt at the stake.
| Editor’s picks: | ||
 How to be a better proofreader# |
 Commonly misspelled words# |
3 ways to eliminate flab from your writing and become a stronger communicator# |