Question: Writing Pet Peeves
What are some of your writing pet peeves?
Please discuss your responses to this question in the comments. Note: you can respond directly to other comments by clicking the “Reply” link in the bottom right corner of each comment.
(Credit for this discussion question goes to Pam)
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March 25th, 2009 at 4:08 am
It drives me crazy when capitalization doesn’t have consistency. I know a few people write with lowercase letters, and that really doesn’t bother me; but when people capitalize someones name but don’t capitalize the first letter of the sentence (or vice versa), it annoys me.
That’s probably an odd pet peeve to have, though.
March 26th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I Randomly capitalize Words.
Okay, I did it on purpose in that sentence, but I really do have a problem doing it. I don’t know where it came from, but it’s something that I do.
March 25th, 2009 at 5:40 am
First I have to respond to Megan – I am one of those weird capitalization people! And I don’t even know how or why it happened! BUT I have been trying to work on it. For sometime I didn’t really do a lot of writing, I wasn’t going to school or anything, so the only typing I did was in emails and for work. So For Some Reason Or Another I Started Capitalizing Every Word In Every Sentence. Weird huh? Then I learned they capitalize every noun in German, so that’s gotta be what it is. I’m subconsciously German? Who knows.
MY writing pet peeve is when you can tell people didn’t even read what they wrote. I have a few friends that do this ALL THE TIME! Like they’ll type the instead of so, or where instead of what, or just somewhat related words, that look the same, but don’t mean the same thing!! Or when they’re typing so fast they od htis. Which I get, I do that too.. but that’s why I hurry and look at what I’m posting, before I publish it? Wow, I just went off for long time.
LONGEST COMMENT EVER, right here. Thank you very much.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Incorrect apostrophes, especially when used with plurals! Such as, “Let make pizza’s tonight.” What? WHY THE APOSTROPHE!?
It really makes my blog pressure rise, which is silly.
March 25th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I hate that too!
March 25th, 2009 at 11:50 am
God yes! I can deal with a lot of the other stuff because sometimes people make mistakes. But incorrect apostrophes drive me up the wall. No excuse for that.
They’re/their/there and your/you’re is another but I’m more tolerant of it. Like I said, sometimes people just forget which one to use.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:38 am
I’m with Megan and Ashley. The capitalization and apostrophe things really grate on me.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:00 am
Improper use of “your” and “you’re,” or “there,” “their,” and “they’re.” Unfortunately, I see this error mostly in my mother’s emails. But it just kills me. Haven’t we all studied grammar enough to catch such mistakes?!
March 25th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Those drive me crazy, too!
March 25th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Agreed! My boyfriend uses the wrong your/you’re constantly. So much so that I am pretty sure he just knows them wrong and it’s not a typo.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Yes! Especially when they say “your welcome”.. bothers me bothers me bothers me!
March 25th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Biggest pet peeves: people who don’t proofread. I admit, I’m bad about it on occasion myself but I always check and fix it! I also don’t like excessive commas, semi-colons and easy spelling errors. Oh, and capital letters. Either write your entire post without capital letters or use them correctly.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:19 am
My point exactly!
March 25th, 2009 at 7:38 am
So true! Lack of proofreading is the worst. I hate reading things that are full of mistakes that could have been easily fixed with just a little extra attention.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:32 am
The capitalization thing doesn’t really bother me, but I hate, hate, hate abbreviations. At least when it’s some kind of official correspondence. It’s one of the things that drove me nuts about being in the military, there are so many abbreviations and nicknames. My other biggest writing pet peeve is overuse of commas. It’s one that I am definitely guilty of, I just realized it the other day. Any time I pause to think I’ll hit the comma button. And I didn’t realize it until recently. Also, misspelling on common words drives me nuts. I guess many things bother me with writing
March 25th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I agree, I am, also, someone that uses, too many commas. Oops.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Since I work with a lot of undergrads on their writing, I’ve discovered the thing that gets on my nerves the most is when they try to hard to write academic-ly and it comes off as forced. I tell them writing directly and to the point is usually the best way to go.
March 25th, 2009 at 8:24 am
I ran into that a lot when I worked in a writing center too, and it was so hard to comment on because what do you say? Usually, I would just have them read back one of those sentences full of big words and weird constructions, and then I’d say, “Umm, what does that mean?”
March 25th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Haha. I love it. What DOES that mean?
March 25th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Ashley makes a great point — reading your sentences out loud can really help a writer gain perspective and hear their voice in a more objective matter. I learned that in undergrad and I often forget it.
March 25th, 2009 at 8:22 am
I agree with all the above about apostrophes and not using the correct contraction. With apostrophes, the WORST for me is that in ALL of my workplaces, this has happened on official documents and press documents. They pass through many hands without anyone correcting them!
March 25th, 2009 at 8:30 am
The misuse of they’re, their, there drives me CRAZY. Or when people text me and don’t include PUNCTUATION. It’s confusing without it and it only takes a second more! DO IT PEOPLE!
March 25th, 2009 at 9:18 am
My biggest pet peeves are related to punctuation. I hate trailing ellipses. Like, do you want to come over tonight . . . . . What? How about throwing up a question mark!
I also hate when people use no punctuation at all like I’m doing here they just start completely new sentences without any punctuation at all how about a comma or something I mean that wouldn’t be correct but it would at least give me some idea that you’re starting a new thought.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Ugh, I know. I can’t stand when people don’t use punctuation!
March 26th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I’m an ellipses freak…
…haha.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Pet peeve #1: Not breaking thoughts into paragraphs and, instead, cramming several different conversations/thoughts/points into one, long-winded paragraph. Yech.
Pet peeve #2: Joining the bandwagon with comma misuse. Cannot STAND when I see a comma splice in a sentence. Granted, I’m a writer that probably uses too many commas (I blame it on all those New Yorkers I’ve read), but what I can say? Commas are like pauses in speech, that quick breath, that brief moment of silence that makes you pay attention just a little more.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Comma splices are the devil!
I’ve recently begun a position as a Managing Editor at an online magazine and I couldn’t believe the amount of comma splices I saw while copy editing the latest issue. And from people who have made careers as “writers!!”
March 25th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
My personal pet peeve is not seeing my grammar mistakes.
March 25th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
In connection with all the comma talk above, I actually hate when people DON’T use commas. And I also find it annoying when writers are too lazy to click the little “spell check” button in their programs. I mean, how hard is it?!
But my biggest pet peeve (by far!) is when I read typos in published novels. It drives me NUTS! (Probably because I’ve always wanted to edit manuscripts, and it just makes me assume – incorrectly – that I could have done a better job)
March 25th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
bad grammar. bad spelling.
your instead of you’re (or vice versa) REALLY bothers me.
and yes, typos in published work REALLY drives me nuts. and i see it ALL the time!!
March 25th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I hate when reins and reigns are substituted. You take the reins of something; that’s a physical item, used to ride horses. Reigns are ephemeral things, historians’ periods of time that can have very little physical component.
And I see this everywhere. Everywhere.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Also, reigning in something requires a place for you to be reigning. You can’t reign in spending unless it’s the Great Kingdom of Spending.
March 25th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Absolute biggest pet peeve has to be when people try and hold a conversation using phrases like lol, those abbreviations that are meant for AIM. I mean seriously? You have to know REAL English! Please form normal sentences which I can comprehend. You don’t sit there and seriously type up your email full of words like ppl do you? This would especially bother me in professional situations.
Maybe that’s just me.
But I also hate when people can’t capitalize the first word of a sentence. Oh and I’m gonna jump on the comma bandwagon even though I’m one of those people. Commas are my mortal enemy!
March 25th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Grammatically, it really bugs me when people capitalize the wrong words.
Stylistically, I don’t like when writers try too hard to be funny.
March 26th, 2009 at 6:40 am
I answered this last Friday and didn’t even know it. Bad sidewalk-walkers!
http://www.livitluvit.com/2009/03/but-you-cant-take-masshole-out-of-girl.html
March 26th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I could ramble on and on about this FOREVER. I probably have a list a mile long, but someone just alerted me to one that drives me nuts:
When people double space after periods, before the start of a new sentence! That was maybe acceptable in high school. But no more!
April 13th, 2009 at 5:44 am
Actually, I disagree. You should always double-space after a period, or any sentence-ending puncuation. I think the current trend is to get away from this because of newer fonts that are proportionatly spaced. Actually, I think it’s just a new way to interject texting short-cuts.
My pet-peeve is double question marks. WTF??
March 26th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Comma splices.
March 26th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I HATE:
There, They’re, Their, offenders.
AND
Your, You’re offenders.
It makes my blood boil.
“Your a doll, Katie.”
Get away from me, freak! Learn to spell