In a 2008 episode of Family Guy, baby Stewie becomes President of the World and immediately replaces every law

with four simple maxims: 1. All straight to DVD Disney movies are hereby banned. 2. All milk must come from Hilary Swank 3. Anyone who sees Peter Griffin must throw apples at him 4. Any person who uses the words irregardless, a-whole-nuther, or all-of-a-sudden will be sent to a work camp. Work camp is a phrase that carries a lot of baggage, stuff that Stewie wont learn about till well after hes potty trained, so Ill give the young leader a break and suggest that language offenders instead be signed up for mandatory Happy English Re-education and Obedience Camp.

Here are a few of the lessons one might learn at HERO Camp: Lose and Loose To lose (verb) something is to be unable to find it, whereas something that is loose (adj) is not tightly secured. Compliment and Complement A compliment is a flattering statement, while a complement is a counterpart that, in conjunction with another, makes a whole. Both words can be used as nouns and as verbs, as in to compliment someone or to complement something. Exasperate and Exacerbate Both of these verbs have rather negative meanings: One may exasperate a person by provocation or irritation and exacerbate the situation by increasing its severity. Disinterested and Uninterested Someone who is disinterested is unbiased and impartial, capable of making an objective decision. On the other hand, someone who is uninterested is merely indifferent, and probably bored. For example, a major league umpire is required to be a disinterested judge calling the events of the game, but if he were uninterested in baseball, he would likely find a different job.

Possessive Pronouns and Contractions Issues with the possessive form of pronouns and similar-sounding contractions can creep into even the most meticulous writers work. These include the following:

Their / There / Theyre Your / Youre Whose / Whos Its / Its The first word in each set is a possessive pronoun and used to indicate who has what, as in the sentence, Your dog bit their neighbor. Whose fault is that? Possessive pronouns are not the same as their homophonic counterparts contractions which are personal pronouns bonded with a form of the verb to be. Irregardless Irregardless is not a word. The word of intent in this case is regardless. All intensive purposes instead of All intents and purposes This is an example of an eggcorn (a mistaken substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar). The term eggcorn was coined by linguist, Mark Liberman, on the preeminent linguistics blog, Language Log. For all intents and purposes, one should only say the correct term: all intents and purposes. Literally as an intensifier Literally means in a literal manner, or a strict sense. People often misuse literally to intensify a statement, such as The camera operator literally just stood there while the man was beaten. Also, people use literally to mean its exact oppositefiguratively. For example, If another telemarketer calls, I will literally jump out the window. Will you? Overuse of Random For example, the 25 Random Things About Me meme that went around the Internet recently. Most were not really random. Also, a couple years ago, I started hearing people describe themselves as being a totally random person or saying, I dont talk to totally random people. I dont know what that means.

Unnecessary Quotation Marks Quotation marks are correctly used for quoting a person or text word for word, or to single out a word as coming from another source, or to indicate ironic use. Millions of hilarious examples of misused quotation marks exist on signs across the country, and they are being cataloged on the blog, Unnecessary Quotation Marks daily. An example would be a sign in a restroom that reads, Employees must wash handsif by hands they mean something else, then I dont want to know. Using ironic to describe things that are coincidental. Im tempted to throw the blame for this one on Alanis Morissette, but I think hers was a case of art imitating life. Nevertheless, rain on your wedding day is not irony. I could care less instead of I couldnt care less If you could care less, then your level of caring is not as nugatory as you want to indicate. If you couldnt care less, then you dont care much at all. The correct phrase is I couldnt care less. That and Which The late, great writer, David Foster Wallace, had the following to say about distinguishing between that and which: There is widespread ignorance about how to use that as a relative pronoun, and two that-errors are so severe that teachers, editors, and other high-end readers will make unkind judgments about you if you commit them. The first is to use which when you need that. Writers who do this usually think the two relative pronouns are interchangeable, but that which makes you look smarter. They arent, and it doesnt. If there needs to be a comma before the relative pronoun, you need which; otherwise, you need that. Examples: We have a massive SUV that we purchased on credit last month; The massive SUV, which we purchased on credit last month, seats us ten feet above any other driver on the road. The second that-error that DFW describes is that of that instead of who or whom. That and Who Ill let David explain this one by continuing where we broke off: Theres a basic rule: who and whom are the relative pronouns for people, that and which are the relative pronouns for everything elseIt so happens that you can occupy a bright child for most of a very quiet morning by challenging her to use that five times in a row in a single coherent sentence, to

which stumper the solution is all about the present distinction: He said that that that that that writer used really should have been a who. Free Gift I would hope that no one would make me pay for the gift they intend to give me. Misuse of Beg the Question No matter which newspaper prints it, or which anchor man spurts it, To beg the question does NOT mean to invite an obvious question, as in: That begs the question, was the President aware of the committees actions? FAIL. To beg the question comes from the Latin petitio principii, which is a kind of logical fallacy where one bases a conclusion on a questionable premise. Here is an example of Begging the Question: A man who has studied law to its highest degree is a brilliant lawyer, for a brilliant lawyer has studied law to its highest degree. Oscar Wilde

These are commonly confused words (some are obvious, others are not):
accept: to take adapt: to change adverse: unfavorable advice: recommendation affect: to influence appraise: to set a value on allusion: indirect reference bloc: political group born: to be given birth brake: to stop or slow can: able cannon: gun canvas: cloth capital: seat of goverment (like Washington DC), larger alphabetic letter censor: person who checks for objectionable material complement: to make complete compose: to make up council: assembly corpse: dead body credible: believable denote: to mean desert: arid region, to abandon discreet: prudent disinterested: impartial elicit: to draw out emigrate: leave except: exclude adopt: to take as one's own averse: disinclined advise: to recommend effect: to bring about (when it is a verb) apprise: to inform illusion: something unreal block: obstruction, cube borne: to be carried break: to fracture, to stop work temporarily may: allowed canon: law canvass: solicit opinions or votes capitol: legislative building (often upper case) censer: container for incense compliment: to praise comprise: to include counsel: advice, lawyer corps: group of people creditable: praiseworthy connote: to suggest in addition to the simple meaning dessert: end of a meal discrete: separate uninterested: without interest illicit: illegal immigrate: come from somewhere else

farther: greater distance flair: style flaunt: to make a boastful display former: first of two forward: onward fortuitous: happens by chance (not necessarily lucky) grisly: horrible hanger: object for hanging clothes historic: important in history imminent: soon to take place imply: to suggest without stating include: to be some parts of a whole lay: place, put, past tense of "lie" lead: a metal (pronounced led), to guide (pronounced leed) lend: (verb) literal: real meaning loathe: to hate lose: to experience loss luxuriant: abundant minor: underage person, lesser moral: ethical oral: spoken palate: roof of mouth peace: calmness persecute: to harrass plain: simple precede: to go before prescribe: to recommend principal: chief, head person prophecy: prediction roll: to turn

further: more flare: to burn flout: to treat with contempt latter: second of two foreword: introduction to a book fortunate: lucky grizzly: streaked with gray hangar: place for airplanes historical: relating to history eminent: important infer: to judge from evidence comprise: to be the parts of a whole lie: to recline led: past tense of lead loan: amount lent (noun) figurative: implied meaning loath: reluctant loose: not tight luxurious: sumptuous miner: person who mines morale: spirit verbal: relating to language palette: artist's paint holder pallet: platform piece: part prosecute: to pursue a legal case against plane: airplane, to smooth, a flat surface proceed: to continue proscribe: to prohibit principle: rule prophesy: to predict role: part to play

session: meeting shear: to clip stationary: fixed than: as in "greater than" or "more than" etc. to: toward trooper: soldier

cession: act of giving away sheer: transparent, utter stationery: paper then: at that time too: also, excessive trouper: actor

weather: state of the air (rain, sunny, whether: if etc.)