Chicago Style Workout 9: Word Usage,
Part 1

/ September 27, 2016

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Dive in!

This workout centers on the glossary of problematic words and phrases under paragraph 5.254 in CMOS 18. Writing and editing are more efficient when you never have to look up affect or effect or dither over whether it’s OK to write inasmuch.

Because the list is so long, we will revisit it regularly in the workout series. This quiz focuses specifically on words beginning with the letter a.

Advanced editors might tackle the questions cold; learners can study those sections of the Manual before answering the questions.

(Subscribers to The Chicago Manual of Style Online may click through to the linked sections of the Manual. We also offer a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online.)

Note: Dictionaries and style guides sometimes disagree. These questions are designed to test your knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style, which prefers the dictionary at Merriam-Webster.com. Other style guides may follow a different dictionary.

Now updated to refer and link to the 18th edition.

Chicago Style Workout 9: Word Usage, Part 1

1. accept; except. To accept something is to receive it (“accept this gift”) or regard it as proper (“accept the idea”). To except something is to exclude it or leave it out (“club members will be excepted from the admission charge”).
2. affect; effect. Although both words can be a verb or a noun, affect is most often a verb; effect is usually a noun.
3. all (of). Of should be deleted whenever possible (“all the houses”) (“all my children”).
4. alongside. This term, meaning “at the side of,” should not be followed by of.
5. altogether; all together. Both are correct spellings. Altogether means “wholly” or “entirely” (“that story is altogether false”). All together refers to a unity of time or place (“the family will be all together at Thanksgiving”).
6. amount. Amount may be used with mass nouns (“a decrease in the amount of pollution”) or count nouns (“a growing amount of dissidents”).
7. and. The word and should never be used as the first word in a sentence.
8. as far as. “As far as technology, it’s constantly changing.”
9. as such. “Science seeks out truth in an organized way and, as such, must be looked upon as an end in itself.”
10. avenge, vb.; revenge, vb. & n. “Family grudges were privately avenged; they didn’t want justice—they wanted revenge.”

 

Photo: Lloyd Eller, son of Bob Eller, Digital ID: npcc 01858, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC.

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