To leave the reader in no doubt as to what you mean, how do you decide on the right choice or words?
I believe my grammar and punctuation has improved through reading Penguin books on, Grammar, Punctuation and Plain English. Also, I believe I have benefited enormously from reading novels. But my Grammar and Punctuation needs much improvement.
The errors I make when I post are due to tiredness, carelessness, and rushing my response to a question. I am sure we are all guilty of that at times.
Do you question the strict dictionary definition or words as you write, or are you confident the reader will understand your meaning?
There are many words in common use which are used incorrectly.
An example is the word, Prejudice. It means to Pre-Judge, but mention the word Prejudice and there are many who automatically assume that it only has racial connotations.
I would be interested to see your examples of the misuse of words.
Much to the indignation of some people the King James Version of the Bible (Authorised Version) was revised about fifteen (or so) years ago. If you look in the front of a RAV / RJKV you will find a long explanation of why and how the revision was made. I don't recall the number of words in this one text that have significantly changed their meaning over time - but there's an enormous number of them. Some have completely reversed their meaning. This is a natural process that continues all the time.
Words also depend of context for their meaning. As a simple example a grandmother will mean something quite different from a youth with the word "wicked" - although, of course, the grandmother may know the reversed meaning - even if the youth does not.
The word that drives me nuts (nuttier) that crops up again and again in media "news" (most of which is well out of date/ past its shelf life) is "after". Whenever anyone gets killed it is always stated as "after" an accident or shooting... Okay... So the was an accident or a shooting - and "after that" the person died... So what happened to kill them After the event? Shouldn't the police be making inquiries? (Or would that be enquires?)
:-)
I just love the word/context checker I have in my laptop... it's not always correct - but it makes me check.
David
Victoria, behave yourself. You know I prefer thunderbugs, to semi-colonic-colons
Brad, a few more to add to your list.
Affect / Effect
Assume / Presume
Appraise / Apprise
Compliment / Complement
Comprise / Consist
Exclude / Preclude
Fewer / Less
Imply / Infer