Do you cringe at a comma splice? Does a misspelled word make you flinch? Does it make you crazy to see "choose" instead of "chose" in a sentence? There are a million of them - feel free to vent here.

Oooh, you asked for it! Here are a few of my least-favorite things: split infinitives, misuse of apostrophe's (that bit done on purpose to illustrate!), your/you're mixups. I'll stop there lest I sound grammatically obsessed.

The "its/it's", "your/you're" and "their/there/they're" mixups drive me up the wall!

I remember when I was in high school and a boyfriend broke up with me. I was so angry at him that I took his break up note and corrected everything in it grammatically. He messed up everywhere on the "their" usage. Boy did that p*** him off, LOL!

As a Southerner I keep trying to figure out how "y'all" should be written. Personally I think my way makes sense. It is a shortened version of "you all", but I see lots of people writing "ya'll". Of course, since neither one is actually proper, I suppose this is really a moot point.

It's kind of funny though...it's so easy to catch when others make the mistake of their/there - write/right - to/too etc... I can always catch them, when it's my own writing, it's so hard to catch - no matter how many times I read and edit. I think I've caught them all and then I'll look a week or month later and notice the ones that I missed.


So with the many errors of my ways, I really can't say I have any writing pet peeves. I work with a group of people, however, who will notice EVERY "i" that I don't dot or EVERY "t" that I don't cross. So much so that they totally don't pay attention to the subject matter because they are too busy trying to get back at me for mistakes so they can have a "gotcha moment" to they point out to me. Not a lot of errors mind you, they are just looking for ONE!

Since I'm an editor I do my absolute, absolute best to catch mistakes, read-edit-read-edit. If I ever write a book - I will definitely need another editor to edit my edits

I have a friend that can NEVER put the right "there" it used to drive me crazy to the point I just wanted to scream at her, but then I put it in prospective and now...

I can definitely see why we would want the writing in children's books to be error-free. That takes me back to the read-edit-read-edit thought

I can't stand the use of the word 'gotten' when it should be got - I know technically it's old English, but it's my pet peeve LOL. It just sounds so out of place in a sentence.
There are a few things actually LOL, especially to do with spelling and use of certain words.

I hear ya I HATE incorrect use of the word "there". I also have a thing about using apostrophes correctly lol. And my latest pet peeve is the mis-spelling of the word "rogue". The number of times I've seen it spelt as "rouge" recently makes me wince to think of!

The other thing I loathe is people putting an "i" into a word where there isn't one, for example in poisonous and grievous. I've heard both of those pronounced with an "i" just before the "ous" even though they aren't spelt like that. And to hear people say "mischeevious". Enough said.

I wonder if the "rogue/rouge" might be a simple mistype, though?

I know I am constantly misspelling "myself" as "myslef" - not because I don't know how to spell the word, but just because my fingers for some reason constantly want to type it that way.

I never learned how to type properly, I just kind of taught myself (there's that word again). I also play piano, and so my fingers have lots of "memory" built into them - they kind of go to these natural patterns while I'm typing if I get going too fast. I think that is what keeps happening with "myslef" - my fingers remember that pattern for some reason instead of the correct way to spell it.

If you hate homonyms try www.AutoCrit.com
The homonym highlighter is part of a paid membership but you can scroll to the bottom of the opening page for a free trial. Then enter your sample and click on homonym highlighter then on analyze. And if you like it send an email telling her that her avid fan Jude sent you there.
I find having AutoCrit among the best returns for my dollars ever!

I especially hate the homonym triples like
they're there their
aisle isle I'll
rain rein reign
etc

cheers

My peeve is 'lose' and 'loose'. Or how about this:
When someone needs to write the word 'so' -- and they write soooooo...
YIKES!
Sheryl

How about when someone sends you an email or a note, but it is written in "text-speak" form:

how ru? i m fine. cya.

It is just like fingernails screeching across a chalkboard.

I do this on the forums and on places like FaceBook where the writing is very informal. I try to write on here like I speak, so I can get things across the way I want them heard.

Now in my articles I write more formally. I have fought the urge to put smilies in at times.

I do think there is a major difference between writing an article or book for a readership and writing discussion notes on forums though.

I agree Michelle. If it's totally informal such as a forum or an email to a friend, then it's ok to use a more relaxed writing style.