GrammarPhile Blog

Most of us are prone to misuse words - some of us more than others. Whether in public speech, or in heated tête-à-tête, we panic and forget how a word is used. Don't despair—it happens to the best of us. Sometimes we're confused for just a fleeting moment: How many readers recall an incumbent U.S. president, speaking at his party's convention on live television, confusing Hubert Humphrey with Horatio Hornblower? Other times we're confused for a lifetime. 

Consider the word Frankenstein. In 1818 a young woman prodigy named Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (wife of the poet in today's Aside) published a horror story called Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, about a German student, Frankenstein, who fabricated a monster that ultimately became the agent of his creator's destruction. The aptness of the fable and of the foreign-sounding name popularized the plot and notion among the many who never read the classic novel. For decades it was therefore felt necessary to correct those who thought that Frankenstein was the monster ("What are you going to be on Halloween?" "Ooooh. I'm dressing up as ... Frankenstein!" "Um, no, you silly, you're dressing up as Frankenstein's monster." "Oh, yeah.").

In any direct reference to the story itself, this correction is still in order. But in alluding to situations in which the creature undoes the creator—e.g., man and his machines—it seems permissible to many writers to transfer the maker's proper name to his invention. The change follows the natural course of acceptance. Thus a mackintosh (not the computer), a Ford, a silhouette—to say nothing of a Rembrandt, a Malaprop, or a sandwich—are familiar extensions that would encourage legitimizing a Frankenstein, and not just by yielding spinelessly to a common misunderstanding.

Here are some additional commonly misused words:

• honed/homed: as in "We honed [read: homed] in on the solution at our staff meeting"
• climactic/climatic: weather changes are climatic, a Big Poppy walk-off grand slam is always climactic
• capitol/capital: the capitol often has a gold domed roof, and it is always in the capital city, and you write the name of the capital with a leading capital letter, as in "Carson City" or "Pierre"

Time for another vocabulary test. Answers are located at the bottom of this post. But don't cheat -- see how many of these you get correct!

We left you dangling on whether or not to split infinitives when writing your business communcations. We conclude today with the straight dope on the subject.

Infinitives are used in many of the corporate communications we review. But what is the best way to use them? Let's take at look this week.

Here are more words that business writers often confuse. Check your writing to be sure you don't fall into word confusion. 

When reviewing and editing customer documents and when reading online articles and posts, we often find mis-used words that result in confusion. This week's post deals with some words that we've seen used incorrectly. Have you been guilty of any of these errors?

When proofreading or editing documents, we often find that writers are confused about when to capitalize these terms. Here are some rules to follow.