Common English usage misconceptions: Difference between revisions

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According to Edwin Herbert Lewis's ''The History of the English Paragraph'' (1894), many of history's greatest writers used one- and two-sentence paragraphs in their works, especially, but not exclusively, in dialogue: [[Daniel Defoe|Defoe]], [[John Bunyan|Bunyan]], [[Laurence Sterne]], [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser]], [[Walter Scott|Scott]], [[Dickens]], [[Henry Fielding|Fielding]], [[Hobbes]], [[Francis Bacon|Bacon]], [[George Eliot]], [[Samuel Johnson|Johnson]], [[John Locke|Locke]], [[Charles Lamb|Lamb]], [[Jonathan Swift|Swift]], [[De Quincey]], [[Joseph Addison|Addison]], [[John Ruskin|Ruskin]], [[Dryden]], [[Philip Sidney|Sidney]], and [[John Milton|Milton]].<ref>Cited with percentages at http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/07/paragraph.html . The original thesis is available online at http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/edwin-herbert-lewis/the-history-of-the-english-paragraph-867.shtml . Various print copies have been scanned and made available, e.g., through [[Amazon.com]].</ref>

'''Misconception:''' ''[[Contraction (grammar)|Contractions]] are not appropriate in proper English.'' Bill Walsh lists this as one of the "big myths of English usage"<ref>[[#Wal04|Walsh 2004]]. p. 61, 67–68.</ref> and [[Patricia T. O'Conner]] and [[Stewart Kellerman]] write, "A lot of people&nbsp;... still seem to think that contractions are not quite&nbsp;... ''quite''. If you do too, you're quite wrong." Writers such as [[Shakespeare]], [[Samuel Johnson]], and others since Anglo-Saxon days have been "shrinking English". Some opinion makers in the 17th and 18th century eschewed contractions, but beginning in the 1920s, usage guides have allowed them. "Most writing handbooks now recommend contractions", but "there are still lots of traditionalists out there who haven't gotten the word",<ref>[[#CK09|O'Conner and Kellerman 2009]]. pp. 32–34.</ref> contributing to the modern misconception that contractions are forbidden. A number of writing guides still recommend avoiding contractions in academic and formal writing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sjprep.org/academics/english/style.html |title=ArchivedSJP: copyEnglish MLA Style Sheet |access-date=2012-04-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830135545/http://www.sjprep.org/academics/english/style.html |archive-date=2011-08-30 }}. Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School</ref><ref>[http://www.basiccomposition.com/resources/AVOIDINGCONTRACTIONS.pdf] [http://www.basiccomposition.com/ABOUT.html Basic Composition.com] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120129134401/http://www.basiccomposition.com/ABOUT.html |date=2012-01-29 }}</ref><ref>[http://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/tip_formal_writing_voice.htm] [http://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/style.htm Illinois Valley Community College].</ref>

'''Misconception:''' ''"I feel badly" is the correct negative response to "How do you feel?"'' The expression "I feel badly" is often used in English, although "I feel badly" literally means "When it comes to feeling, I do it poorly." According to Paul Brians in ''Common Errors in English Usage'', " 'I feel bad' is standard English", and " 'I feel badly' is an incorrect hyper-correction by people who think they know better than the masses."<ref>[[#Bri09|Brians 2009]]. p. 25.</ref>