First, let’s lose the “loose”.

At the risk of sounding like that dear departed curmudgeon, Andy Rooney, I’m beginning to lose my temper over the increasingly loose misuse of “lose” and “loose”. Does this bother anyone else?

Which would you prefer to do: “Loose the dogs of war.” Or, “Lose the dogs of war.” [Yes, I know Bill Shakespeare said, “Let slip the dogs of war.” But I’m making a different point here.]

I’ve pretty much given up on many people knowing the difference between adverbs and adjectives. But the misuse of lose/loose and effect/affect, along with people adding apostrophes to a plural “s” gets on my nerves. Along with obvious typos that could have been caught with spell-check, these usages in a headline or lead paragraph have a similar effect: I immediately click to the next story.

Want to make it harder for people to know what you’re saying? It’s easy. Don’t proofread.

Proofing for grammar and sentence sense is usually a decent idea. If you can’t do it yourself, ask a friend. You’ll be amazed at those little things you’ll catch, like words and verb tenses that no longer make sense because you re-wrote something a few sentences away. I question how well you really know your subject if you don’t know or care enough to convey it accurately. I really don’t care how good your idea is if you don’t respect me enough to take the time to say it in a reasonably fluent manner. You’re not respecting people who know what words mean. And you’re misleading those who don’t.

Not proofing your writing is like farting in church. It makes it hard for people to pay attention to your message.

Am I alone in my concerns?

Are there other egregious errors that bug you?

Let loose your comments!