Glossary
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G.1: Write the phrase you misused and the rule.
Do not write just “G” or “Glossary.”
negative, positive
negative, positive
Overused as vague substitutes for “bad” and “good.” Find more precise words.
VAGUE: When I finally won some matches, I started feeling positive about myself.
BETTER: When I finally won some matches, I gained confidence.
VAGUE: Miss Watson is negative about religion, but the Widow Douglas is positive about it.
BETTER: Miss Watson tries to enforce obedience by instilling fear of eternal punishment, but the Widow Douglas takes a kinder approach to teaching religious concepts.
nice
nice
Overused as a term of mild approval. Almost all of us use it in everyday speech, but it is too vague for formal writing. Find a more exact word.
USAGE TIP: “Nice”
English writer D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) wrote a poem mocking the word “nice,” which even in his time had come to seem shallow and sometimes hypocritical.
The English Are So Nice
The English are so nice
so awfully nice
they are the nicest people in the world.
And what’s more, they’re very nice about being nice,
about your being nice as well!
If you’re not nice they soon make you feel it.
Americans and French and Germans and so on
they’re all very well
but they’re not really nice, you know.
They’re not nice in our sense of the word, are they now?
That’s why one doesn’t have to take them seriously.
We must be nice to them, of course,
of course, naturally.
But it doesn’t really matter what you say to them,
they don’t really understand,
you can just say anything to them:
be nice, you know, just nice,
but you must never take them seriously, they wouldn’t understand,
Just be nice, you know! oh, fairly nice,
not too nice of course, they take advantage,
but nice enough, just nice enough
to let them feel they’re not quite as nice as they might be.
nobody, no one
nobody, no one
For academic writing the Keables Guide recommends the more formal “no one” (always two words). The same is true for similar indefinite pronouns:
SLIGHTLY INFORMAL: anybody, everybody, somebody
MORE FORMAL: anyone, everyone, someone
not, no, never
not, no, never
Be careful where you place “not” and “no”:
MISLEADING: All of us are not honest.
CLEAR: Not all of us are honest.
AMBIGUOUS: He is not happy because the Yankees won.
CLEAR: He is unhappy because the Yankees won.
CLEAR: He is happy, not because the Yankees won, but because the Red Sox lost.
Be careful in using “not” and “no” in parallel constructions. In the following sentence, “not” seems to modify both “want” and “choose.”
AMBIGUOUS: They no longer want to follow tradition and choose a different path.
The reader must do a double-take to realize that “choose” follows from “They,” not from “do not.”
CLEAR: No longer willing to follow tradition, they choose a different path.
not only
not only
Be careful where you place the “not only” and the “but also.”
MISLEADING: The band director not only scolded me but also the entire rhythm section.
CLEAR: The band director not only scolded me but also praised my progress.
CLEAR: The band director scolded not only me but also the entire rhythm section.
If you start a “not only . . . but also” construction, you must complete it.
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