Be Careful When You Count to One

People often say “If there’s one thing I like/hate/think about/etc,” then they mention more than one thing! Don’t do that!

Here’s a guy who committed this error in spades:

Think before yo speak! You can say “I like two things best,” or “A couple things cross my mind all the time…”

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Ever since I began grammar school, in the 1960s, my English teachers all taught me that the past tense of the verb “sneak” was “sneaked,” and I’ve preached on that topic occasionally on this site.

Well, how can I argue with NASA? Read the label in the second photo.

Linguistic change and all that, I guess.

Here’s the strip:

Second panel. He says “physical distancing”! Just like the FBI and some medical professionals I know, he doesn’t say “social distancing.” Face it, folks, you stay physically away from others, but you still interact with them socially, by, say, talking.

See this post for more on the subject: https://writing-rag.com/4515/the-worst-phrase-in-2020/

Harrumpf.

Definitely not clear! Misleading, even! After several headlines saying essentially the same thing, here’s a quote from the main article:

A team of researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has discovered a new method that makes it possible to transform electricity into hydrogen or chemical products by solely using microwaves – without cables and without any type of contact with electrodes.

http://www.upv.es/noticias-upv/noticia-12415-una-revolucion-en.html

Really? Use microwaves to create hydrogen atoms out of electricity without using anything but the microwaves? Farther into the article, we figure out that the microwaves are beamed at something; microwaves are the only tool used to changed the material. I think:

The technology developed and patented by the UPV and CSIC is based on the phenomenon of the microwave reduction of solid materials, in this study exemplified by the reduction of Cerium oxide. 

Okay, class, re-write that sentence so it’s clearer. Here’s a picture of the scientists; apparently not the writer.

It’s almost a headline…

Fragments of rotating turbine parts penetrated one side of the plane’s fuselage before passing through to the other. 

https://interestingengineering.com/massive-russian-an-124-condor-slides-off-the-runway-after-engine-failure

Interesting Engineering is a source I generally expect better writing from.

I mean, Duh! How else would the rotating parts pass through the other side???

Here’s a picture:

See if you can construct a better sentence.