While writing my latest book I realized that I want my next writing project to be a non-technical non-fiction or fiction book. I enjoy writing technical books and articles, but I am ready to try and challenge myself in a different way. The problem is that I haven’t done much non-technical writing since high school and college, so I decided to do my research and pick up a couple books to work on my writing skills.
One of the books I picked up was this Dictionary of Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson. This book is an incredibly useful reference to common words and phrases that people get wrong, often quoting mistakes in well-known newspapers. For example:
conceived “Last week, twenty-five years after it was first conceived…” (Time). Delete first. Something can be conceived only once. Similarly with “initially conceived” and “originally conceived.”
After reading the book I spot common mistakes like this all over the place. I even found out that I have mis-used one of my favorite words in the past (plethora should only be used to represent an absurd amount, not just a lot). This book should be required reading for anyone who cares about using words correctly in their emails, blogs, books, etc.
-James
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