Top ten mistakes

Many students, and some teachers, think of language as a fixed logical structure with timeless rules. A guide such as this one that presumes to teach the"right" way to write for college may well reinforce this view of an eternal, ideal language. But such a view misunderstands what language is. Language, our species' greatest invention, is a rich, rough-and-tumble, and ever-changing mix of formal rules and informal custom. In a broad sense usage is always logical, but the logic of rhetoricians （who have traditionally tried to base all their rules for English on how Latin works） and of a living language can be quite different. Things that were once against the rules gradually win popular acceptance to the point that they become part of"standard English"; other things, once respectable English, are gradually driven into disrepute by scholarly opinion.

　　An example: double negatives as a way of emphasizing negation have a long history in spoken and written English stretching back to the time of Chaucer. But in the 18th century classically-oriented grammarians, aware that in Latin double negatives cancel out, applied the same rule to English:"Two negatives in English destroy one another, or are equivalent to an affirmative" （Robert Lowth, A Short Introduction to English Grammar, 1762）. The grammarians have driven the poor old double negative into the gutter. It is not recommended for formal writing.

　　Thus there is an element of artificiality in any list of the leading mistakes in English. The list presented here will undoubtedly change over time. Apostrophes, for instance, are probably on the way out, in the judgment of most language scholars today. But they're not gone yet, and the audience for formal college English tends to be conservative. Thus the wisest course is to give your readers what they are used to in terms of usage.

　　And now, the Nuts and Bolts top-ten list of usage mistakes in student essays.

10. Apostrophes

9. Nouns ending in y

8. Conjunction confusion

7. Infamy and notoriety

6. Cannot

5. Affect and effect

4. Intents and purposes

3. Plural or singular

2. Principal/principle

1. It's/its