Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC
March/April 2004

Ask Elaine: Double Trouble

by Elaine Parrish
DMV Copyeditor

If you have an editing question you’d like to see addressed in a future column, please submit it to Ask Elaine.

Here’s a fantasy scenario for you:

BOSS: I’ve got a writing assignment for you. I want you to research, describe, and explain in detail all of the complex processes involved in mastering the ABC Software.

YOU: OK, boss, you got it! When is this project due?

BOSS: Oh, don’t worry about that. Take as much time as you need.

Reality check: As every writer knows, there is no such thing as a project where you can “take as much time as you need.” If a writer had that luxury, he or she could no doubt come up with a spectacular masterpiece: concise, perfectly written, and error-free. Those of us who live in the real world, however, must deal with time constraints. You wish you had time to carefully research, write, test, rewrite, edit, test, rewrite, edit—and so on, until you have a faultless final product. But you have a deadline (often a nearly impossible one), so you must compromise by capturing words on the screen as quickly as possible.

Confusing Doubles

As a seasoned writer, you’ve probably become very good at writing in a hurry. As a result, you may sometimes run into “double trouble”—using the wrong word of a pear that many writers get mixed up. (Of course I meant to write “pair” in that last sentence—see what I mean?)

It doesn’t help that certain words are often incorrectly used in popular media. Does the grocery store advertise bargains “everyday”? Have you ever seen a print ad for a product that “let’s” you enjoy more leisure time? Does your home security system promise you “piece” of mind? Seeing a word used the wrong way over and over again can lead you to believe it’s actually correct.

Types of Usage

For some of these doubles, correct usage depends upon the part of speech being used. Many words take one form when used as a noun or adjective, and another form when used as a verb or adverb. For example, you can drive a pick-up [adjective] truck to pick up [verb] a pizza on the way home. You wear your everyday [adjective] clothes to go to the gym every day [adverb].

Other doubles (and some triples) consist of entirely different words used as the same part of speech. Even though they just happen to sound very much alike, they are spelled differently and have entirely different meanings. For example, to proceed means to go forward; to precede means to go before. To ensure means to make certain; to insure means to protect against loss; and to assure means to give someone confidence. To affect is to influence; to effect means to bring about (to further complicate matters, the noun form of effect means a result or impression).

Many confusing doubles are words that don’t even sound alike. Bring indicates motion toward the speaker, while take indicates motion away from the speaker: You can take my book to work with you if you promise to bring it back to me tomorrow.

Keep a List

How can we do a better job of keeping troublesome doubles straight? If you don’t have time to hunt for words in your dictionary or your style manual, try starting your own personal list. As writers, each one of us has a unique set of words that we always seem to confuse. You’re probably aware of many of your own troublesome words. Ask your editor to suggest others. Keep your list near your computer to refer to when proofreading your work, and add to it regularly. Every writer’s list will be different, but here’s one example:

I hope this technique works for you as it has for me. Happy list making!

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