• Adverbs modify verbs and adjectives. Adjectives modify nouns. Don’t use an adjective when modifying a verb. Eg:
o Don’t: I did good on the test today.
o Do: I did well on the test today.
o Do: I am a good test taker.
o Don’t: Drive slow.
o Do: Drive slowly.
o Do: Be a slow driver.
• Be sure that your pronouns have clear connections to specific antecedents.
• Don’t misspell words, especially if they are spelled correctly in the instructions printed on the same page.
o “acceleration” not “exceleration”
o An “angle” is measured in degrees or radians. An “angel” is a supernatural creature in some religions.
o “axle” not “axel”
o “constant” not “constance”
o “correlation” not “coralation”
o “experiment” not “expirament” nor “expierment” nor “expirement”
o “explanation” not “explination”
o “height” not “hight”
o “lens” not “lense”
o “marble” not “marbel”
o “magnitude” not “magnetude"
o “Negligent” means legally responsible for something bad happening due to someone’s lack of action. “Negligible” means able to be neglected or ignored because its effects are too small to notice.
o “pilot” not “piolet”
o “precise” not “percise"
o “quantity” not “quanity”
o “Resistors” are circuit elements. “Resisters” are those who struggle against authority.
o “symmetrical” not “semetrical”
o A “trial” is one run of observations within a series. A “trail” is a path one might run along.
o “varying” not “verying”
o “vertical” not “verticle”
o “I” before “e” except after “c” or when sounding like “a” as in “neighbor” and “weigh” or within “neither leisured foreigner seized the weird heights”.
• Homophones:
o Do remember that due to carelessness certain homophones may be confused.
o It’s “it’s” when you mean “it is”, and it’s “its” when you mean the third person singular possessive.
o You could paddle with an oar, or go mine some ore.
o Pilot your boat straight through the strait.
o The role of a baker includes rolling out dough for baking rolls.
o “Their” is the third person plural possessive pronoun. “There” means not over here. “They’re” means “they are”.
o To take two would be too many, too.
o One way to weigh whey would be to put some on a scale.
o You’re responsible to take care of your grammar responsibilities.
• Astronomical objects
o When referring to the planet Earth, Earth’s Moon, or the Sun in our solar system, capitalize these words as they are the proper names of those objects in English.
o When referring to earth meaning “the ground”, the moon or moons of other planets besides the Earth, or suns which are stars other than our own, use lower case.
• The word “data” is a plural. Its singular is “datum”. Use plural forms when talking or writing about data.
o Eg: Our data were very precise.
o Not: Our data was very precise.
Latinate Physics nouns and their plurals
1st declension
hyperbola hyperbolae
parabola parabolae
2nd declension masculine
focus foci
2nd declension neuter
datum data
fulcrum fulcra
momentum momenta
pendulum pendula
3rd declension
index indices
hypothesis hypotheses