I’ve always loved reading and writing and spend a lot of time attempting to perfect my grammar, and writing style in order to to be professional, sound smart and get goods grades.
Anyway, there are a few things that I have learned in the recent years that I have apparently been doing incorrectly which I have learned to overcorrect. Because of this I am hypersensitive to these things and it have become more aware of correcting these errors:
1. neither…nor
“The proposed treatment is not reasonable and not necessary”
“The corporation nor a representative of the corporation attended”
The above statements can be properly fixed with two simple words: “neither” and “nor”
The corrected versions of the above statements are:
“The proposed treatment is neither reasonable nor necessary”
“Neither the corporation nor a representative of the corporation attended”
This is just a simple way to make these statements more succinct and accurate.
2. using “they” to refer to a Court or corporation/company/entity
“The corporation decided to terminate the employee, they decided his conduct was a violation of their policies”
“The Court decided to rule in favour of the Defendant, their opinion was as follows”
The “they” and “their” is used to refer to a corporation and the court which is incorrect. The proper pronoun is “it”.
The corrected above statements are:
“The corporation decided to terminate the employee, it decided his conduct was a violation of their policies”
“The Court decided to rule in favour of the Defendant, its opinion was follows”
3. being inconsistent with references
This is a big pet peeve and really tends to make a piece appear sloppy and can cause confusion. Referring to someone as “the Plaintiff” and then in another paragraph or even later in a sentence, referring to the same person as “Mrs. Smith” for example is just a big mess. Keep your references consistent, it makes your writing appear more streamlined and straightforward. I know this is an easy one but I have seen this mistake made too often.
These are just 3 simple and easy errors that I learned to correct and be conscious of in my writing and that I think is very helpful when drafting pleadings, written submissions or school assignments. Hope this is helpful!
