Customer Reviews

2010 Common Errors in English Usage Daily Boxed Calendar

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I received this as a gift and was pleased, as I can be a bit of a stickler for grammar. Unfortunately, there is very little in this calendar to get excited about. Instead, the vast majority of the entries seem to be words that are different but sound the same. For example, today's entry is sheath vs. sheaf. That doesn't even come close to common, and there is not much room for confusion of the two words. Perhaps they just sound similar enough for the author to pad out his list. Every now and then there is a correction of a misconception regarding of what words a phrase is comprised, such as "fowl swoop" opposed to "fell swoop". These can be amusing, but I cannot fathom such a misconception being common.

To make matters worse, the author of this calendar limits the definition of usage to word choice without making any noticeable forays into rules of grammar. Occasionally (I skipped ahead), there is a bit on verb tense, like done vs. did. There is no instruction that I saw on topics such as using commas to notate an aside in a sentence, despite that being a far more common error than many of the entries of this calendar.

I'll give some credit for inclusion of there, their, and they're and your and you're, but these errors and the explanation of why they are errors are everywhere. Overall, the calendar is sorely disappointing.