The Board of Illegal Words #1

When I was teaching, I had a Board of Illegal Words (and phrases) on the side chalkboard. We’d go over them once, with funny examples, and they stayed up for reference. We’d add to it when we could. Whether anyone looked at it ever again is debatable, but mistakes with those words dropped off considerably.

Kids, students - both middle school and high school - tend to take something to heart once they are corrected, especially if the knowledge is just something the adult world took for granted that they would “just know” and was never specifically explained to them. However, a lot - and I mean a lot - of adults make these mistakes, too, so wouldn’t be in a position to catch or correct them.

Why do these things happen? Phonics, usually. It’s the way it sounds, and it gets repeated, and written down, then repeated again.

If you are a teacher, these can be corrected for everyone in your class if you take two minutes to explain the error behind them to everyone, rather than just identifying it one-at-a-time to each student during a draft review.

Take this trio of non-existent phrases: could of, would of, should of. Sound familiar? Yes, they sound familiar. Bad (or student) writers use them often because they haven’t been corrected. What is the correct form? Why, “could’ve (could have), would’ve (would have), should’ve (should have),” of course.

I had a student recently tell me, “Ha-ha. You spelled it wrong.” It happens, I type fast, make an error now and then. I asked him which one so that I could fix my typo. He told me, “Sike.” I had written the phrase “psych you out.” I asked him to spell it. He said, “S-I-K-E.” I explained there was no such word and that he was being influenced by some bad speller on the internet. When I told him the phrase comes from ‘psychology’ (among others with the stem), he knew that word and that it had something to do with the mind, and it made sense to him, now.

Same with usage of the US dollar sign. Students will write “The toy cost twenty dollars,” sometimes as “The toy cost 20$.” Their reasoning is that “dollars” follows “twenty,” so naturally the dollar sign would follow the number when writing it that way because that’s how it sounds. Then I introduce them to the way that Great Britain, the United States, and many other countries write out their currency values, and they say, “Oh.” And then the mistake happens less often. (I won’t go into all the reasons why currency markers are either before or after numerals in different countries, but, simply, it identifies that you are talking about money from the get-go and it identifies the currency involved. I’m also not sure it is surprising to find that many students have never seen the ¢ sign. Heck, it’s not even on the standard keyboards, anymore, but as an option+ keystroke.)

An opposite example is “etc.” So many kids write “ect.” for the Latin et cetera. I call them on it, and the kid says, “Well, it’s an abbreviation.” I tell them, yes, and then I write out the Latin and speak the words. They realize they haven’t sounded it out, and that the spoken ‘ect’ just isn’t right. They use the abbreviation correctly, usually, but it’s written wrong because they’ve never seen or been told what it’s an abbreviation of. Telling the class this once, I never saw it again, until the next year.

So what’s my point, other than to rant about bad spelling, non-existent proofreading, and a lack of editorial staff? It’s that students do care about their work, and will learn, if you take the time to show them, and show them why. And show the whole class - don’t just write on one student’s paper or make a note on their Google doc. Show everyone, it takes two minutes, then none of them (maybe) will make that error again. If one kid had that issue, guaranteed others do, too. It’s the kind of thing where a kid walks away and says, “Hey, I actually learned something today.”

It was a small gain, but it was something.

What started this rant / blog entry today? “Use to” instead of “used to.” I read a lot. So do you, probably. When I’m reading amateur stories - either from my students rough drafts or from internet sources - I don’t get my panties in a bunch about bad proofreading. But when a professional publisher with an editorial staff lets things go by, it’s a sad state of affairs. Again, this example is a matter of phonics gone uncorrected. A character says, “I use to go to Las Vegas, but I cannot afford to, anymore.”

The first point of correction is that the “use to” part of the sentence is past tense, and should be written as such. “I used to go to Las Vegas…” “Use” is either a noun or a present tense verb.

The second point of correction is that students hear the consonant D sound in “used” combining with the consonant “T” sound in “to”: useDTo” then deny the D when writing it out.

The teacher who is being a tool will ask a student “You use two what?” and the student has no idea what he’s talking about. And it just gets stupid. A simple two minute correction for the whole class will open eyes.

Fair warning: I may add more blog entries on the Board of Illegal Words, sort of as an “Old Man Shakes Fist at Cloud” kind of thing. But the point behind it all remains: students don’t know the error until it is pointed out to them, and then shown why it is an error.

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