Well Confucious for sure didn’t invent confusion, but Miss Panama is clearly confused.
Luckily, Eduify is the writing coach that is always by your side. We know how easily language can become confusing, and how easily words can become confused with one another. Confucious does sound like confusion, regardless of whether you’re speaking Spanish or English, so it’s (sort of) understandable how in a moment of pressure, Miss Panama associated these words together.
There are so many words in the English language that we tend to associate together, even when they have little to do with one another. Here is a list of words whose usage is commonly confused, and an example of correct usage for each word.
accept/except: He accepted all his mother’s gifts, except for the ugly Christmas sweater she obviously got at Costco.
advice/advise: You are not advised to disregard Miss Cleo’s advice, as she can see into your future.
affect/ effect: Not having a pair of 3-D glasses negatively affected my appreciation of the special effects in Jonas Brothers 3D available on Blu Ray.
allot/ a lot: I’m going to allot some room in my stomach for a lot of this candy.
already/ all ready: It’s not yet noon and I’m alreadyall ready to go!
all together/ altogether: This was altogether the worst meal we have eaten all together.
altar/alter: The altar I built in my room to the Twilight movie might alter my chances of landing a boyfriend.
beside/ besides: Besides, there’s already a piece of pizza beside you, so why do you need mine?
by/ bye/ buy: I will buy a good-bye present for my cousin at that new gas station by the 7-11.
canvas/ canvass: I am running for Mayor and would appreciate it if you canvassed for me by carrying this oil-on-canvas self-portrait of me all around town.
capital/ capitol: The capital of France is across the ocean from the Capitol buildings in Washington D.C.
cite/ site/ sight: I’m a law enforcement official, and I’m going to cite you for jay-walking within my sight, right here at the site of the crime.
clothes/ cloths: The cloth that he used to make those clothes was the most exquisite burlap.
coarse/ course: The coarse language she used toward her teacher of course landed her in detention during those years, and it was not surprising to anyone that she eventually landed in jail in her adult life.
complement/ compliment: The ranch dressing was a perfect complement to the wings, but it did not compliment my figure to continue eating it.
council/ counsel: The council of witches regularly meets to counsel the cats in the neighborhood on how to misbehave.
decent/ descent/ dissent: The descent of my grade from a decent B to an embarrassing F was the result of a dissent between my textbook and I.
desert/ dessert: The desert is no where to go looking for dessert involving mangoes or any other tropical fruit.
device/ devise: I devised a time-traveling device which, if properly used, will take me back to the time of the dinosaurs.
faint/ feint: I feinted ingeniously with 9P in my last game of chess with Cecil, and he was so taken aback he actually fainted over his Americano and petits fours.
farther/ further: I can go no farther on this journey until I read further in this book.
formally/ formerly: She’s not formally married to him right now, but she was formerly married to someone else before.
forth/ fourth: The fourth piece of pizza always does me in, until I am forced to go forth and lay down for a while.
here/ hear: If you put your ear here, to this shell, you can hear the ocean.
If you want to see more words commonly confused, check back tomorrow for words 25-50! This will be an ongoing series on Eduify’s blog of words commonly confused, to help you students differentiate between distinct ideas and write better and more clearly.
And always remember, if you have any confusion as to the usage of any of the above terms, make sure to look up the usage in a dictionary.
It’s 9:00 AM, and the final bell begins to ring. You barely slept the night before in preparation for today’s exam. You wait anxiously in your seat, and your palms are already starting to sweat furiously. You glance at your teacher, sitting in the front of the classroom, who is busy pulling something out of her desk. A horrible feeling gushes through you: something like a mix between fear and dread. Before you even see what is in your teacher’s hand, you already know what it is — and you suddenly realize that your worst nightmare on Earth has just become reality. In your teacher’s hand is a stack of objects which signify to you everything that is insipid, unnecessary, and evil in the world. Your teacher is walking toward you with a stack of blue books in her hand. As if dreaming, you rise from your seat, walk over to the row of windows at the back of the room, and throw yourself out of one. Defenestrate, incidentally, has always been your favorite S.A.T. word.
Had you conquered your fear of the essay test (and had you paid more attention in science class to Newtonian laws of physics), you would not have participated in an act of defenestration.
The essay test is one of the most challenging exams for students, largely because you never know what to expect. Writing essays is a difficult endeavor in its own right, but with the time constraints and ‘element of surprise’ that go into essay tests, the whole situation becomes even more challenging. But if you learn some basic strategies for taking essay tests, you will soon realize that they aren’t really as noxious as everyone seems to think. There are techniques that you can use to ace this dreaded exam, and all that is required is a little foresight and organization. By learning these 10 tips for taking essay tests, you’ll score higher on your tests, write better papers, and sleep a lot easier the night before your exam.
10. Prepare for the exam. Essay tests are infinitely easier if you go into them with knowledge of the topics that are going to be covered. In my opinion, essay tests are actually easier than multiple choice exams, because while you need to know the ‘broad picture’ of what you studied, you don’t need to memorize every specific detail of your subject.
9. Understand the question. Before you do anything, read the essay question three times. Seriously. I can’t tell you how many great essays I wrote that missed points because I failed to answer the entire question. If the question is, “Why is the television show LOST so confusing and why did you stop caring after the third season?” and you give a persuasive answer of why the show is confusing, but you forget to say why you stopped caring after the third season, you’ve probably lost more than a few points (bad pun, sorry).
8. Write a clear thesis. Essay exams test your analytical skills rather than your memorization. Your teacher wants to see you assess the question, respond critically with a sound thesis, and provide a persuasive, analytical discussion of ideas that validates your thesis.
7. Outline everything before you begin. It helps you stay organized if you take the time, before you start writing, to outline what you’re going to say.
6. Keep your introduction short and to-the-point. Because of time restrictions, it’s silly to waste time writing a long and involved introduction when the real intention should go to the heart of the matter: the argument.
5. Stay on track with your subject. There is no greater time-drain than a tangent. Nor is there anything more annoying to the reader than when the writer veers wildly off topic.
4. Examine one new idea in each paragraph. Think of paragraphs as separate little arguments, each with a strong central point. If you stick to one idea per paragraph, the reader knows where you’re going with the paper, and your writing will be clearer and more organized.
3. Keep track of time. There is no worse feeling than when the bell rings and you’re not done with your essay. Your teacher has another class coming in, and trust me, she’s not going to wait around for you to finish. She’ll kick your butt outta class as soon as the test is done.
2. Include specific details in your writing. You can’t prove an argument without providing facts. Knowing your facts, and displaying them prominently, not only makes your paper stronger, but it will impress whoever is grading your paper.
1. Proofread your entire paper at least once before you hand it in. I know it’s annoying, and you want to get that dreaded blue book out of your hands as soon as possible. But take a chill pill and set aside a minute or two to read through your paper again. You’ll be surprised how many mistakes you can catch in the second go-over.
It never gets easier. The college admissions essay, a 500-word composition that brings sleepness nights and months of stress for high school seniors every year, still has the power to agonize those who not only graduated from college years ago, but are at the pinnacle of their careers within the Academy: college presidents. The Wall Street Journal challenged the presidents of the several top colleges and universities in the United States to answer one question from their own admissions application.
The “applicants” were told not to exceed 500 words (though most did), and to accept no help from public-relations people or speechwriters. Friends and family could advise but not rewrite. The Journal selected the question from each application so presidents wouldn’t pick the easy ones. They had about three weeks to write their essays.
The exercise showed just how challenging it is to write a college essay that stands out from the pack, yet doesn’t sound overly self-promotional or phony. Even some presidents say they grappled with the challenge and had second thoughts about the topics they chose. Several shared tips about writing a good essay: Stop trying to come up with the perfect topic, write about personally meaningful themes rather than flashy ones, and don’t force a subject to be dramatic when it isn’t.
In your day-to-day vernacular, you probably use a lot of non-dictionary words. I, for one, have a habit of abbreviating things to the nth degree when I speak, to the point where “whatever” becomes “whatev,” “totally” becomes “totes”, “vacation” becomes “vacay”, “details” becomes “detes” and… you get the point. Sadly, I also use some words that are blatantly fabricated, like “criticality” when I mean “criticism”. Worse of all, I have an annoying habit of using the word “funner” when I ought to simply say, “more fun”.
However, as peppered as my speech patterns are with non-standard English, I try not to bring my own personal language into the sphere of academic writing. I couldn’t imagine what would go through an English teacher’s mind if I turned in a paper that said, “Yo, Herman Melville’s gynormous book about Moby Dick was super phat, cuz Ishmael will be one of my fave, most coolest protagonist forevs LOL.” Like, automatic F, right?
To help you write better, I compiled a list of 5 words you should avoid in all your papers. I understand the importance if irony, but the irony of using grammar and spelling like “Dey’s awluz at it, sah, en dey do mos’ kill me, dey skyers me so,” even in a paper about The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn (which that quote is directly lifted from) would completely be lost on your professor. So, without further ado:
1. Irregardless. This word is completely unacceptable in any universe where proper grammar is encouraged. According to Wikipedia, “Irregardless is a term meaning in spite of or anyway, that has caused controversy since it first appeared in the early twentieth century. It is generally listed in dictionaries as “incorrect” or “nonstandard”. This word is used to mean “regardless,” but with the inclusion of the “ir-” preceding the word, it is formed into a double negative. Logically, “irregardless” would mean “not regardless,” but of course, that’s not the way it’s ever used. Long story short: avoid.
There’s a famous Vampire Weekend song that wonders why anyone actually cares about Oxford Commas. Vampire Weekend obviously cares enough about the Oxford Comma to write a song about it, and they surely have a competent understanding of grammar (they did all go to Columbia). After you become a famous rock star, you can forget about grammar too, but as a student hoping to impress your English teachers, it’s important that you understand what the Oxford Comma does and how to properly use it in a sentence.
So, what is this infamous Oxford Comma? This comma, which is also sometimes referred to as the ‘Harvard comma,’ (don’t ask me why) is used in sequences of three or more items, immediately before the preposition that precedes the final item.
