I have a confession. Sometimes, when I meet people for the first time, and I am asked what I do for a living, I hesitate. I know what I do, but there are moments when I don’t feel like using the word “write” and its derivatives. I still cannot pinpoint the reason, but the next time it happens, I shall certainly think about it again. Has that happened to any of you?
Maybe you find it easy to put on the label “writer”, but whether or not you do, what I’d like to share in today’s Grammar Guide is something about some “signs” that writers exhibit. We’ve been over many of these things in the past, but earlier today, I found myself going through a blog post titled “You Might Be a Writer If…” and did I find myself chuckling!
The writer basically listed down items to complete the statement “You might be a writer if you know:”
- how to use there, their and they’re correctly
- the difference between its and it’s
- when to use peek, peak and pique
- the difference between affect and effect
- how to use an apostrophe correctly
- when to use a hyphen to form a two-word adjective
- the difference between loose and lose
- when to use roll instead of role
- that it is never correct to use “should of” in place of “should have”
Let’s have a little fun and add our own items to the list? Here’s my shortened version, with elements that are not necessarily grammar-related.
You might be a writer if you:
- can rattle off a hundred different ways to say the same thing
- can’t concentrate during a lecture/presentation/sermon because you keep getting distracted by the speaker’s mistakes
- employ non-standard usage, simply because you know the rules, and you feel that you can get away with it
- sigh if you see words such as “stuffs” (used as noun)
What’s on your list? Share them with us!
Image via Chapendra
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